Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Victor Martins set the pace for ART Grand Prix as Formula 2 post-season testing got underway in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday morning.
The opening session was interrupted early on by three red flags, at least two of which were for technical reasons where the clock was stopped, and running was extended by 50 minutes to compensate.
It was six minutes after the restart that Joshua Duerksen put the first serious time on the board, a 1m38.184s. That was bettered half a minute later by Pepe Marti, but Duerksen improved by a second a couple of laps later.
Ten minutes later, Victor Martins took top spot and would himself find a couple of tenths’ improvement after two more laps, recording a 1m36.799s that remained unmatched for the nearly two hours that remained.
Richard Verschoor got closest, setting a time just 0.037s slower for MP Motorsport, while Marti took third for Campos Racing right at the end of the session, demoting Duerksen’s time to fourth.
There were two more red flags in the final 70 minutes, the first for Christian Mansell (Rodin) at Turn 13 and the second for Leonardo Fornaroli (Invicta) at Turn 11 with half an hour remaining.
The quickest of the new driver and team combinations was Roman Stanek with Invicta Racing in fifth, just ahead of Kush Maini at DAMS. Behind MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe came Gabriele Mini at Prema, Ritomo Miyata with his new team ART Grand Prix and Trident’s Max Esterson.
Alex Dunne was the quickest of the drivers making their debut in the F2 2024 car in 12th, the Rodin Motorsport tester just one place ahead of Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad.
Hitech duo Luke Browning and Dino Beganovic didn’t get a competitive time on the board having focused on in and out laps.
Morning session results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | 1m36.799s | |
| 2 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 1m36.836s | +0.037s |
| 3 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | 1m37.117s | +0.318s |
| 4 | Joshua Duerksen | AIX Racing | 1m37.155s | +0.356s |
| 5 | Roman Stanek | Invicta Racing | 1m37.176s | +0.377s |
| 6 | Kush Maini | DAMS | 1m37.179s | +0.380s |
| 7 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 1m37.182s | +0.383s |
| 8 | Gabriele Mini | Prema | 1m37.300s | +0.501s |
| 9 | Ritomo Miyata | ART Grand Prix | 1m37.335s | +0.536s |
| 10 | Max Esterson | Trident | 1m37.555s | +0.756s |
| 11 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta Racing | 1m37.571s | +0.772s |
| 12 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | 1m37.643s | +0.844s |
| 13 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos Racing | 1m37.680s | +0.881s |
| 14 | Christian Mansell | Rodin | 1m37.723s | +0.924s |
| 15 | John Bennett | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m37.956s | +1.157s |
| 16 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m38.051s | +1.252s |
| 17 | Sebastian Montoya | Prema | 1m38.145s | +1.346s |
| 18 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | 1m38.314s | +1.515s |
| 19 | Sami Meguetounif | Trident | 1m38.350s | +1.551s |
| 20 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | 1m39.695s | +2.896s |
| 21 | Luke Browning | Hitech | 2m21.790s | +44.991s |
| 22 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech |