Joseph Pepe Marti led the way on Day 2 of the FIA F2 test in Barcelona ahead of Victor Martins and Dennis Hauger.
MORNING
Juan Manuel Correa set the pace in the opening half hour of running on day two, improving on multiple laps to lower his best to a 1:26.214 early on. Campos’ Isack Hadjar was next to go to the top, bettering the DAMS Lucas Oil driver’s effort by 0.039s with 40 minutes run. Just before the end of the first hour, further improvements began to filter in with Trident going to the top on soft tyres. Roman Stanek led teammate Richard Verschoor with a 1:24.392, 0.3s ahead of the Dutch driver.
Verschoor found more speed to then go quickest with a 1:24.202 just prior to the first Red Flag of the day. Miyata was the driver stopped in the final sector between Turns 10 and 11, bringing a pause to the on-track action with just over half the morning segment remaining. The session was quickly back underway and Hadjar moved back up to P1, becoming the first into the 1:23s. Dennis Hauger got to within 0.003s of the Frenchman’s 1:23.881 to go second for MP Motorsport as multiple teams began to focus on soft tyre runs.
Zane Maloney lifted Rodin up to third position, 0.146s down on Hadjar’s fastest time with Zak O’Sullivan going fourth for ART Grand Prix, another 0.040s behind the Bajan. Martí then moved himself to the top of the timing screens, displacing his teammate by two-tenths of a second with a 1:23.681 with just under an hour and a half remaining.
With an hour to go, Martins improved his personal best to go back up to second in his ART, 0.160s shy of Martí’s time. Hauger was back out on track and moved himself to third, another 0.021s behind the Frenchman. The timing charts remained largely the same for the remainder of the morning, with no changes to the top five. Martí finished as the fastest from Martins, Hauger, Hadjar and Paul Aron. Having been fastest on the opening day, Bortoleto ended the morning of day two as the busiest driver of all, logging 71 laps for Invicta.
| Position | Driver | Licence | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josep María Martí | ESP | Campos Racing | 1:23.681 | 27 |
| 2 | Victor Martins | FRA | ART Grand Prix | 1:23.841 | 52 |
| 3 | Dennis Hauger | NOR | MP Motorsport | 1:23.862 | 23 |
| 4 | Isack Hadjar | FRA | Campos Racing | 1:23.881 | 33 |
| 5 | Paul Aron | EST | Hitech Pulse-Eight | 1:23.940 | 39 |
| 6 | Franco Colapinto | ARG | MP Motorsport | 1:24.016 | 32 |
| 7 | Zane Maloney | BRB | Rodin Motorsport | 1:24.027 | 49 |
| 8 | Zak O’Sullivan | GBR | ART Grand Prix | 1:24.067 | 28 |
| 9 | Richard Verschoor | NLD | Trident | 1:24.202 | 40 |
| 10 | Joshua Duerksen | PRY | PHM AIX Racing | 1:24.242 | 47 |
| 11 | Kush Maini | IND | Invicta Racing | 1:24.284 | 54 |
| 12 | Roman Stanek | CZE | Trident | 1:24.392 | 39 |
| 13 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | ITA | PREMA Racing | 1:24.510 | 21 |
| 14 | Jak Crawford | USA | DAMS Lucas Oil | 1:24.540 | 39 |
| 15 | Amaury Cordeel | BEL | Hitech Pulse-Eight | 1:24.782 | 39 |
| 16 | Juan Manuel Correa | USA | DAMS Lucas Oil | 1:24.851 | 40 |
| 17 | Ritomo Miyata | JPN | Rodin Carlin | 1:24.963 | 48 |
| 18 | Taylor Barnard | GBR | PHM AIX Racing | 1:25.053 | 47 |
| 19 | Oliver Bearman | GBR | PREMA Racing | 1:25.702 | 22 |
| 20 | Enzo Fittipaldi | BRA | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:28.521 | 41 |
| 21 | Gabriel Bortoleto | BRA | Invicta Racing | 1:29.250 | 71 |
| 22 | Rafael Villagómez | MEX | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:29.589 | 42 |
AFTERNOON
PREMA, ART and MP were on track right away to kick off the afternoon’s running, but Franco Colapinto’s session was put on pause with 10 minutes gone. The Argentinian driver came to a halt in Sector 2, bringing out the second Red Flag of the day. Teammate Hauger was the fastest driver in the early phases once running got back underway, 1:26.883 the time to beat with half an hour gone.
After a relatively quiet morning, Enzo Fittipaldi put Van Amersfoort Racing on top next, with his 1:26.807 just under a tenth quicker than Hauger’s earlier effort. With little over an hour to go on day two, Bortoleto went quickest, lowering the time to beat to a 1:26.573 in his Invicta. Teammate Kush Maini improved up to third with over 45 minutes left of the session, 0.257s down on the Brazilian’s time.
That was until the Rodin Motorsport pair bolted on softs to make it a one-two for the team. Miyata set a 1:24.878 for P1, 0.204s quicker than teammate Zane Maloney in second. Not long after, Bortoleto restored himself to second with a 1:25.067, splitting the two Rodins and just missing out on topping consecutive afternoon sessions. O’Sullivan proved to be the busiest driver of the afternoon segment, logging 68 laps in his #2 ART Grand Prix car.
| Position | Driver | Licence | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ritomo Miyata | JPN | Rodin Motorsport | 1:24.878 | 33 |
| 2 | Gabriel Bortoleto | BRA | Invicta Racing | 1:25.014 | 26 |
| 3 | Zane Maloney | BRB | Rodin Motorsport | 1:25.082 | 26 |
| 4 | Kush Maini | IND | Invicta Racing | 1:25.084 | 47 |
| 5 | Enzo Fittipaldi | BRA | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:25.712 | 28 |
| 6 | Rafael Villagómez | MEX | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:26.013 | 33 |
| 7 | Richard Verschoor | NLD | Trident | 1:26.803 | 30 |
| 8 | Dennis Hauger | NOR | MP Motorsport | 1:26.883 | 58 |
| 9 | Roman Stanek | CZE | Trident | 1:27.262 | 23 |
| 10 | Paul Aron | EST | Hitech Pulse-Eight | 1:27.451 | 53 |
| 11 | Amaury Cordeel | BEL | Hitech Pulse-Eight | 1:27.840 | 51 |
| 12 | Isack Hadjar | FRA | Campos Racing | 1:27.904 | 46 |
| 13 | Josep María Martí | ESP | Campos Racing | 1:28.053 | 44 |
| 14 | Joshua Duerksen | PRY | PHM AIX Racing | 1:28.516 | 46 |
| 15 | Franco Colapinto | ARG | MP Motorsport | 1:29.252 | 37 |
| 16 | Jak Crawford | USA | DAMS Lucas Oil | 1:29.336 | 51 |
| 17 | Juan Manuel Correa | USA | DAMS Lucas Oil | 1:29.755 | 49 |
| 18 | Oliver Bearman | GBR | PREMA Racing | 1:29.857 | 37 |
| 19 | Victor Martins | FRA | ART Grand Prix | 1:30.093 | 52 |
| 20 | Zak O’Sullivan | GBR | ART Grand Prix | 1:30.400 | 68 |
| 21 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | ITA | PREMA Racing | 1:30.615 | 38 |
| 22 | Taylor Barnard | GBR | PHM AIX Racing | 1:30.707 | 45 |
Here’s how Day 1 of F2 test panned out in Barcelona
[Note: The story is as per press release]