Lando Norris was fastest for the second consecutive day at the Circuit Paul Ricard, but unlike on Tuesday, the Briton did not manage to top both of the sessions, as Alexander Albon did his chances of confirming his place on the grid for 2018 by setting the best time of the afternoon.
The Briton led a Carlin one-two in the morning session, with his best lap of 1:42.226s the fastest overall of the day, while team-mate Sergio Sette Câmara was second quickest, 0.161 seconds back.
Jack Aitken ended the morning third fastest for ART Grand Prix, and had been the first driver to dip beneath the ninety-three second mark on the day, only for the two Carlin drivers to jump ahead of the Renault Sport Formula One Team reserve driver, while Louis Delétraz of the Charouz Racing System outfit was fourth fastest.
Arjun Maini put his Trident into fifth ahead of the second ART of George Russell, while Nyck de Vries, Luca Ghiotto, Albon and Nirei Fukuzumi completed the top ten in the morning session.
Roberto Merhi brought out the red flags early in the session as he stopped at turn twelve, and only completed five laps as a result, while further stoppages by Sean Gelael and Russell also caused disruption to the session.
Albon ended the afternoon session on top of the timing screens with a lap of 1:42.406s, which put his DAMS machine into the top three overall, with de Vries putting his Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing machine into second, albeit almost three-tenths of a second back of the Thai driver.
Delétraz had another impressive session to place third ahead of Oliver Rowland, with the Briton once again testing for DAMS in place of the ill Nicholas Latifi, while Maini again ended fifth ahead of BWT Arden’s Fukuzumi and Charouz Racing System’s Antonio Fuoco.
Merhi recovered from his morning stoppage to put his MP Motorsport into eighth, while Norris and Sette Câmara ended the session ninth and tenth respectively.
Formula 2 officials are looking into the number of stoppages caused with engine related issues, with the offending units being sent back to the engine suppliers factory for analysis.
“We covered 6,000 kilometres with the development car without any engine trouble,” said technical director Didier Perrin. “The same can be said for the dyno tests, but it is not unusual to uncover a problem when twenty cars are running at the same time. This is also why collective tests are helpful.
“We have already sent the faulty power units for analysis and we are confident that our engine partners will remedy the situation.”
Alexander Albon was fastest in the afternoon session – Credit: Malcolm Griffiths/FIA Formula 2
Circuit Paul Ricard Test Day 2 Result
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