After testing here a few weeks ago, the teams and drivers were back in Bahrain for the opening round of the recently renamed F2 Championship. Rowland’s been fastest ahead of Markelov and Leclerc.

Rowland set the early pace with a slight advantage over Markelov, less than a tenth of a second. Leclerc and Fuoco were not very far behind, just 2 tenths off Rowland‘s time. Meanwhile, McLaren’s young driver De Vries had lots of issues to get his Rapax started. He managed to set a timed lap, but when he tried to rejoin the track again he had the same problems, which ended up with his Rapax parked in a run-off area.

After 6 minutes of Virtual Safety Car, the drivers went for a final attempt, but nothing changed at the top, since some drivers such as Leclerc found themselves impeded by other cars. Rowland was 1st ahead of Markelov, Leclerc, Fuoco, Nato, Ghiotto, De Vries, Cecotto, Matsushita and Malja, all of them within a second.

Result:

Pos Driver Team Gap Laps
1 Oliver Rowland Dams 1:42.221 16
2 Artem Markelov Russian Time 0,092 13
3 Charles Leclerc Prema Racing 0,151 15
4 Antonio Fuoco Prema Racing 0,16 12
5 Norman Nato Arden International 0,373 13
6 Luca Ghiotto Russian Time 0,494 14
7 Nyck de Vries Rapax 0,831 6
8 Johanny Cecotto Rapax 0,925 16
9 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 0,992 15
10 Gustav Malja Racing Engineering 1,009 14
11 Sergio Sette Camara MP Motorsport 1,039 15
12 Jordan King MP Motorsport 1,044 15
13 Nicholas Latifi Dams 1,102 15
14 Sean Gelael Arden International 1,134 13
15 Ralf Boschung Campos Racing 1,258 12
16 Stefano Coletti Campos Racing 1,411 16
17 Nabil Jeffri Trident 1,67 16
18 Sergio Canamasas Trident 1,737 15
19 Louis Delétraz Racing Engineering 1,795 14
20 Alexander Albon ART Grand Prix 2,139 15