After FIVE red flags that heavily disrupted afternoon running, it was Pedro Piquet who began FIA Formula 2 testing fastest at Bahrain.
The 21-year-old Brazilian set a time of 1:41:877 late on in the afternoon to complete the perfect day for his team Charouz as Louis Delétraz topped the morning session.
Behind the Brazilian came an Asian invasion as Nobuharu Matsushita came in second, less than two tenths behind Piquet with Carlin rookie Jehan Daruvala, Trident’s Roy Nissany, ART’s Marcus Armstrong and DAMS’ Sean Gelael completing the top six.
Behind them came Tom Dillmann who drove the afternoon session in Marino Sato’s Trident. He wasn’t the only replacement driver after Christian Lundgaard (ART) was forced to miss the test due to being held in coronavirus quarantine in Tenerife. Sergey Sirotkin replaced the Dane.
Delétraz came in eighth in the afternoon which saw times nearly two seconds quicker than the morning with Artem Markelov (HWA) and Yuki Tsunoda (Carlin) finishing the top ten.
Markelov and his HWA teammate Guiliano Alesi didn’t post a completed lap time in the morning session despite a combined 23 laps between them and so will be relieved to have times on the board. Alesi was 20th.
Williams F1 affiliated duo Jack Aitken and Dan TIcktum sat just outside the top ten in 12th and 13th respectively behind Mick Schumacher who eased himself back into the swing of things.
Schumacher’s teammate this season will be reigning FIA F3 champion Robert Shwartzman who finished the day 15th.
The other rookies in the field are Felipe Drugovich (17th) and Guilherme Samaia (22nd).
The test is being ran in unison with the F3 field and there is still two more days of running before the season begins at the same circuit on March 21-22.
