Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Trident’s Sami Meguetounif ended Formula 2 pre-season testing at Barcelona on top on Wednesday afternoon.
It was quiet early on, with six drivers heading out. Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad set a 1m25.427s benchmark to lead MP Motorsport’s Ricard Verschoor by 0.288 seconds.
Lindblad’s team-mate Pepe Marti set a 1m26.307s in third, going 0.137s faster than Trident’s Max Esterson.
MP’s Oliver Goethe and Meguetounif joined them in the 1m26s after 11 minutes of track action, and some time later Rodin Motorsport sent out its drivers and Alex Dunne set a 1m25.805s to go third fastest.
Just before Esterson struck trouble in sector two and caused a red flag stoppage 25 minutes in, Meguetounif lowered the pace to 1m24.363s and it was a time that would not be beaten.
Testing resumed with 50 minutes having already passed of the three-hour session, and 10 drivers had completed laptimes after an hour.
That soon grew to 18, and there were more red flags 71 minutes in as Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett had a problem in sector three.
Therewas another lengthy break, and green flags waved again in the session’s second half. A few drivers headed straight back out, and Rodin’s Christian Mansell set a 1m27.117s to move into eighth place ahead of fellow improver and VAR driver Rafael Villagomez.
Meguetounif still had a gap of over a second at the top until Dunne set a 1m25.048s at the start of the final hour. He returned to the pits after that, and team-mate Mansell set a new personal best of 1m25.817s that lifted him to fifth. He then returned to the pits too.
Goethe caused the next red flag period with half an hour remaining of testing, and with 20 minutes to go AIX Racing’s Cian Shields recorded a 1m27.840s that put him 10th.
The next changes to the top 10 occurred with little over seven minutes left on the clock. ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins set a 1m26.355s, putting him within two seconds of the pace and into seventh place, then AIX sent out its drivers again. Joshua Duerksen and Shields moved into sixth and seventh by both setting 1m25.9s laps, and 25 seconds before the chequered flag was due to wave there were red flags again and this time caused by Meguetounif.
Afternoon session results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sami Meguetounif | Trident | 1m24.363s | 45 | |
| 2 | Alex Dunne | Rodin Motorsport | 1m25.048s | +0.685s | 33 |
| 3 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos Racing | 1m25.427s | +1.064s | 49 |
| 4 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 1m25.715s | +1.352s | 46 |
| 5 | Christian Mansell | Rodin Motorsport | 1m25.817s | +1.454s | 29 |
| 6 | Joshua Duerksen | AIX Racing | 1m25.939s | +1.576s | 39 |
| 7 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | 1m25.977s | +1.614s | 35 |
| 8 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | 1m26.307s | +1.944s | 50 |
| 9 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | 1m26.355s | +1.992s | 52 |
| 10 | Max Esterson | Trident | 1m26.444s | +2.081s | 10 |
| 11 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 1m26.597s | +2.234s | 42 |
| 12 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m27.522s | +3.159s | 29 |
| 13 | Ritomo Miyata | ART Grand Prix | 1m27.953s | +3.590s | 50 |
| 14 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta Racing | 1m29.145s | +4.782s | 57 |
| 15 | Sebastian Montoya | Prema | 1m29.254s | +4.891s | 50 |
| 16 | Gabriele Mini | Prema | 1m29.452s | +5.089s | 59 |
| 17 | Roman Stanek | Invicta Racing | 1m29.822s | +5.459s | 45 |
| 18 | Kush Maini | DAMS | 1m29.930s | +5.567s | 43 |
| 19 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | 1m29.971s | +5.608s | 44 |
| 20 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech GP | 1m30.277s | +5.914s | 29 |
| 21 | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | 1m30.279s | +5.916s | 41 |
| 22 | John Bennett | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m40.433s | +16.070s | 4 |