Charouz Racing System’s Pedro Piquet led the way on Day 1 of FIA Formula 2 (F2) Championship as Trident’s Devlin Defrancesco headed FIA Formula 3 (F3) Championship at Bahrain.
The respective 2020 F2 and F3 grid were back in action at Bahrain International Circuit with the new 18-inch tyres as Charouz’s Piquet ended up quickest in the former while Defrancesco was fastest in the latter. The Brazilian set a late 1m41.877s lap to top Day 1.
He relegated MP Motorsport’s Nobuharu Matsushita to second with Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala in third. Piquet also ended up as the fastest F2 rookie ahead of the Indian Red Bull junior, who caused one of the red flags due to throttle issue.
Trident’s Roy Nissany was fourth with ART Grand Prix’s Marcus Armstrong fifth ahead of DAMS’ Sean Gelael and Trident’s Tom Dillmann. The Frenchman drove the car of Marino Sato in the afternoon session after the Japanese drove it in the morning.
Morning session’s pace-setter Charouz’s Louis Deletraz was eighth as HWA Racelab’s Artem Markelov and Carlin’s Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the Top 10 position. Apart from Daruvala, Hitech GP’s Nikita Mazepin and Luca Ghiotto, both caused separate red flags as well.
Prema’s Mick Schumacher missed out on the Top 10 in 11th with DAMS’ Dan Ticktum just behind as he led fellow British racers Jack Aitken (Campos) and Callum Ilott (UNI-Virtuosi Racing) with Prema’s Robert Shwartzman rounding out the Top 15 – the last to be under a second of Piquet.
Position 16-22: Sergey Sirotkin (in place of Christian Lundgaard), Felipe Drugovich, Guanyu Zhou, Ghiotto, Giuliano Alesi, Mazepin, Guilherme Samaia.
The full F2 timings can be found, here
https://twitter.com/FIA_F2/status/1234211319567572993?s=20
F3:
As mentioned, Defrancesco was fastest in F3 with a 1m46.884s lap ahead of Campos Racing’s Alexander Peroni and MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor. It was a smoothing outing for most part apart from one red flag for ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire.
Defrancesco and Peroni traded times towards the end but it was the former in the lead. Pourchaire, meanwhile, was fifth fastest behind teammate Sebastian Fernandez as morning pace-setter MP Motorsport’s Bent Viscaal was sixth quickest overall.
The final ART driver Alexander Smolyar was seventh in his SMP Racing colours, while Trident’s Lirim Zendelli was eighth ahead of Charouz Racing System pair of Igor Fraga and Niko Kari in the Top 10. The day saw HWA Racelab’s Jake Hughes miss out due FE test.
The full F3 standings can be found, here.
https://twitter.com/FIAFormula3/status/1234177347726839815?s=20