Zane Maloney was fastest on Day 2 of FIA F2 pre-season test in Bahrain, with Jak Crawford second and Enzo Fittipaldi in third.
It was Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney who set the fastest lap of the Sakhir test so far to end day two quickest. The Bajan driver hit the front in the final hour of running, logging a 1:41.501 to lead the way on Monday. In the morning, Kush Maini put Invicta Racing on top, going quickest of the AM in the last moments of the first session with a 1:44.219.
MORNING
Running got underway and everyone left their garages immediately but the first Red Flag quickly followed as Rafael Villagómez suffered a spin on the exit of Turn 2 in his Van Amersfoort Racing car. The session got underway again but only briefly after Hitech Pulse-Eight driver Paul Aron had a similar excursion at the same location, necessitating another Red Flag to recover his car.
Back to green flag conditions, Enzo Fittipaldi set the early pace for VAR, going quickest of all on a 1:45.523. Victor Martins had been second to the Brazilian, but he took over P1 with a 1:45.073 to go comfortably fastest. Into the final hour and it was as you were once more, with Fittipaldi improving to become the first driver to go beneath the 1:45-mark.
After a fairly quiet opening day and a half of pre-season testing, Maini put Invicta Racing top of the pile with just over five minutes to go. The Indian driver set a 1:44.219 to go quickest late on. Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Amaury Cordeel ended up with 37 laps across the opening session, the most in the first segment of running.
| Position | Driver | Licence | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kush Maini | IND | Invicta Racing | 1:44.219 | 27 |
| 2 | Enzo Fittipaldi | BRA | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:44.839 | 29 |
| 3 | Victor Martins | FRA | ART Grand Prix | 1:45.073 | 30 |
| 4 | Zak O’Sullivan | GBR | ART Grand Prix | 1:45.537 | 32 |
| 5 | Jak Crawford | USA | DAMS Lucas Oil | 1:45.700 | 28 |
| 6 | Isack Hadjar | FRA | Campos Racing | 1:45.902 | 22 |
| 7 | Dennis Hauger | NOR | MP Motorsport | 1:45.985 | 26 |
| 8 | Zane Maloney | BRB | Rodin Motorsport | 1:45.999 | 32 |
| 9 | Gabriel Bortoleto | BRA | Invicta Racing | 1:46.031 | 36 |
| 10 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | ITA | PREMA Racing | 1:46.061 | 31 |
| 11 | Oliver Bearman | GBR | PREMA Racing | 1:46.148 | 30 |
| 12 | Richard Verschoor | NLD | Trident | 1:46.179 | 19 |
| 13 | Joshua Duerksen | PRY | PHM AIX Racing | 1:46.313 | 26 |
| 14 | Juan Manuel Correa | USA | DAMS Lucas Oil | 1:46.408 | 27 |
| 15 | Ritomo Miyata | JPN | Rodin Motorsport | 1:46.511 | 34 |
| 16 | Rafael Villagómez | MEX | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:46.562 | 26 |
| 17 | Roman Stanek | CZE | Trident | 1:46.610 | 21 |
| 18 | Franco Colapinto | ARG | MP Motorsport | 1:46.641 | 29 |
| 19 | Taylor Barnard | GBR | PHM AIX Racing | 1:47.532 | 17 |
| 20 | Amaury Cordeel | BEL | Hitech Pulse-Eight | 1:49.015 | 37 |
| 21 | Paul Aron | EST | Hitech Pulse-Eight | 1:49.321 | 26 |
| 22 | Josep María Martí | ESP | Campos Racing | 2:38.807 | 6 |
AFTERNOON
Back underway in the evening session, Zane Maloney set the early pace with a 1:44.919 putting the Rodin Motorsport driver at the top of the timing screens. That was until Dennis Hauger completed a 1:44.778 to go even quicker for MP Motorsport with just under half an hour of running.
The first Red Flag of the session came shortly afterwards with Trident’s Roman Stanek coming to a stop at Turn 8. Back to green and further improvements quickly followed from the majority out on track. Jak Crawford displaced 2023 teammate Isack Hadjar at the top, before Fittipaldi went one better and lowered the time to beat to a 1:44.135.
Hauger was next to leap up the timing sheets, going second before Maloney returned to the top spot with one and a half hours left. Heading into the final hour and Hadjar restored Campos Racing to the front, laying down multiple fastest laps to lower the benchmark to 1:41.921. Crawford improved to close the gap to just 0.024s as he became the next driver into the 41s before Fittipaldi leapt up to P1 on a 1:41.830.
The target was smashed once again though, with Maloney going quicker still to lead on a 1:41.501 in the Rodin #5. There were several more improvements, but nobody could go faster than the Boy from Barbados, who ended Day 2 on top after a Red Flag for a stopped Zak O’Sullivan brought an early end to the session by only a handful of minutes. While Hadjar ended up fourth in the end, he will be happy with the 42 laps he completed, making him the busiest driver under the floodlights.
| Position | Driver | Licence | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zane Maloney | BRB | Rodin Motorsport | 1:41.501 | 31 |
| 2 | Jak Crawford | USA | DAMS Lucas Oil | 1:41.626 | 29 |
| 3 | Enzo Fittipaldi | BRA | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:41.735 | 33 |
| 4 | Isack Hadjar | FRA | Campos Racing | 1:41.921 | 42 |
| 5 | Kush Maini | IND | Invicta Racing | 1:41.982 | 25 |
| 6 | Gabriel Bortoleto | BRA | Invicta Racing | 1:42.149 | 35 |
| 7 | Zak O’Sullivan | GBR | ART Grand Prix | 1:42.162 | 30 |
| 8 | Victor Martins | FRA | ART Grand Prix | 1:42.172 | 28 |
| 9 | Juan Manuel Correa | USA | DAMS Lucas Oil | 1:42.294 | 32 |
| 10 | Franco Colapinto | ARG | MP Motorsport | 1:42.313 | 26 |
| 11 | Dennis Hauger | NOR | MP Motorsport | 1:42.315 | 26 |
| 12 | Ritomo Miyata | JPN | Rodin Motorsport | 1:42.420 | 34 |
| 13 | Richard Verschoor | NLD | Trident | 1:42.435 | 26 |
| 14 | Josep María Martí | ESP | Campos Racing | 1:42.539 | 23 |
| 15 | Rafael Villagómez | MEX | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:42.636 | 34 |
| 16 | Amaury Cordeel | BEL | Hitech Pulse-Eight | 1:42.659 | 28 |
| 17 | Taylor Barnard | GBR | PHM AIX Racing | 1:42.793 | 28 |
| 18 | Paul Aron | EST | Hitech Pulse-Eight | 1:42.866 | 29 |
| 19 | Joshua Duerksen | PRY | PHM AIX Racing | 1:43.043 | 27 |
| 20 | Oliver Bearman | GBR | PREMA Racing | 1:43.712 | 29 |
| 21 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | ITA | PREMA Racing | 1:44.585 | 20 |
| 22 | Roman Stanek | CZE | Trident | 2:00.787 | 11 |
Here’s how Day 1 of Bahrain F2 test panned out
[Note: The story is as per press release]