Victor Martins set the pace on Day 1 of FIA F2 in-season test in Bahrain, ahead of Joseph Pepe Marti and Leonardo Fornaroli.
MORNING
Arvid Lindblad set the ball rolling in the opening half hour, with a 1:47.820 the time to beat early on. That was then bettered by the Campos Racing driver as he lowered that effort to a 1:47.308 shortly afterwards. ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins was the next to take over in P1, the Frenchman going quickest and then improving on his time to lower the benchmark to a 1:47.131.
DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford then pipped him after an hour of running, 1:47.032 putting the American on top, until Oliver Goethe became the first into the 1:46’s. The MP Motorsport driver moved his best time down to a 1:46.775. Josep María Martí then put Campos back on top. The Spaniard’s 1:46.604 kicked off a busy second hour as longer runs and aero tests became the focus for many.
Roman Stanek then rose to the top of the times next as he put in a 1:46.454 in the final 25 minutes, good enough for the Invicta Racing to take P1. With just over five minutes to go, the Czech driver, fitted with Soft Pirelli tyres, put in a 1:44.789 and went almost two seconds clear of the pack, to end the first session comfortably fastest.
| Position | Driver | Licence | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Stanek | CZE | Invicta Racing | 1:44.789 | 33 |
| 2 | Josep María Martí | ESP | Campos Racing | 1:46.604 | 19 |
| 3 | Oliver Goethe | DEU | MP Motorsport | 1:46.755 | 13 |
| 4 | Jak Crawford | USA | DAMS Lucas Oil | 1:47.032 | 33 |
| 5 | Richard Verschoor | NLD | MP Motorsport | 1:47.059 | 12 |
| 6 | Alexander Dunne | IRL | Rodin Motorsport | 1:47.072 | 31 |
| 7 | Victor Martins | FRA | ART Grand Prix | 1:47.131 | 32 |
| 8 | Joshua Duerksen | PRY | AIX Racing | 1:47.210 | 20 |
| 9 | Ritomo Miyata | JPN | ART Grand Prix | 1:47.304 | 31 |
| 10 | Arvid Lindblad | GBR | Campos Racing | 1:47.308 | 20 |
| 11 | Sami Meguetounif | FRA | TRIDENT | 1:47.349 | 20 |
| 12 | Amaury Cordeel | BEL | Rodin Motorsport | 1:47.481 | 29 |
| 13 | Kush Maini | IND | DAMS Lucas Oil | 1:47.524 | 27 |
| 14 | Max Esterson | USA | TRIDENT | 1:48.106 | 23 |
| 15 | Cian Shields | GBR | AIX Racing | 1:48.960 | 20 |
| 16 | Luke Browning | GBR | Hitech TGR | 1:49.855 | 27 |
| 17 | Dino Beganovic | SWE | Hitech TGR | 1:50.663 | 29 |
| 18 | Gabriele Minì | ITA | PREMA Racing | 1:57.581 | 35 |
| 19 | Rafael Villagómez | MEX | Van Amersfoort Racing | 2:07.648 | 26 |
| 20 | Sebastián Montoya | COL | PREMA Racing | 2:15.464 | 25 |
| 21 | John Bennett | GBR | Van Amersfoort Racing | 2:18.729 | 25 |
| 22 | Leonardo Fornaroli | ITA | Invicta Racing | 2:19.287 | 26 |
AFTERNOON
After the break, Lindblad hit the ground running once again under the floodlights, setting a 1:45.876 in the opening 10 minutes. Teammate Martí then improved twice to bring the time to beat down to a 1:44.996, becoming the first driver to break into the 1:44s. Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli then slotted into second place with a lap that was 0.561s down on the Spaniard’s earlier time.
With an hour and a half to go, Sami Meguetounif moved up the timing screens to go P1 for TRIDENT, until 2024 F3 teammate Fornaroli went fastest, as he put in a 1:44.911. Into the final hour of the session and Campos were on the up once more, as Lindblad and then Martí returned the Spanish outfit to the top of the timing screens. The latter’s 1:42.584 was comfortably quickest, 0.420s ahead of his teammate.
Improvements from Fornaroli and Crawford then cut the advantage to 0.130s as the pair dipped into the 1:42s along with Martí. Into the final minutes however, and Victor Martins put in a 1:42.536 for ART, narrowly beating Martí’s effort to go fastest for the day.
Fornaroli finished up third ahead of TRIDENT’s Max Esterson, Crawford and Lindblad. Amaury Cordeel was seventh for Rodin Motorsport, with Ritomo Miyata, Alexander Dunne and Gabriele Minì rounding out the top 10.
| Position | Driver | Licence | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Victor Martins | FRA | ART Grand Prix | 1:42.536 | 21 |
| 2 | Josep María Martí | ESP | Campos Racing | 1:42.584 | 24 |
| 3 | Leonardo Fornaroli | ITA | Invicta Racing | 1:42.714 | 38 |
| 4 | Max Esterson | USA | TRIDENT | 1:42.736 | 37 |
| 5 | Jak Crawford | USA | DAMS Lucas Oil | 1:42.965 | 17 |
| 6 | Arvid Lindblad | GBR | Campos Racing | 1:43.004 | 24 |
| 7 | Amaury Cordeel | BEL | Rodin Motorsport | 1:43.060 | 31 |
| 8 | Ritomo Miyata | JPN | ART Grand Prix | 1:43.086 | 21 |
| 9 | Alexander Dunne | IRL | Rodin Motorsport | 1:43.114 | 33 |
| 10 | Gabriele Minì | ITA | PREMA Racing | 1:43.122 | 25 |
| 11 | Luke Browning | GBR | Hitech TGR | 1:43.139 | 28 |
| 12 | Rafael Villagómez | MEX | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:43.150 | 35 |
| 13 | Dino Beganovic | SWE | Hitech TGR | 1:43.226 | 30 |
| 14 | John Bennett | GBR | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:43.241 | 41 |
| 15 | Sebastián Montoya | COL | PREMA Racing | 1:43.487 | 31 |
| 16 | Kush Maini | IND | DAMS Lucas Oil | 1:43.688 | 29 |
| 17 | Sami Meguetounif | FRA | TRIDENT | 1:44.591 | 28 |
| 18 | Joshua Duerksen | PRY | AIX Racing | 1:44.673 | 13 |
| 19 | Richard Verschoor | NLD | MP Motorsport | 1:44.833 | 26 |
| 20 | Oliver Goethe | DEU | MP Motorsport | 1:44.895 | 25 |
| 21 | Cian Shields | GBR | AIX Racing | 1:48.195 | 17 |
| 22 | Roman Stanek | CZE | Invicta Racing | 1:48.492 | 32 |
[The story is as per press release]
