Day One of In-Season Testing See’s Boschung On Top

Ralph Boschung set the fastest time of the day in FIA Formula 2’s first day of their in-season testing which took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.

The Campos Racing driver was the only driver on the grid to break underneath to 1:28s barrier after fifty-five laps of the circuit, with Hitech Grand Prix’ Marcus Armstrong setting the second fastest time which was two tenths off the Swiss.

The day started off gloomy with chilly weather and a few spots of rain. This led to a disrupted morning session with only two of the drivers posting more than thirty laps of the circuit.

Championship leader and Jeddah Feature Race winner, Felipe Drugovich, led the session ahead of the Bahrain Feature Race winner, Theo Pourchaire who was a tenth and a half off the Brazilian driver’s pace.

The session saw three stoppages with the first being Trident’s Calan Williams who found himself spun around at turn 2. This was followed by Carlin’s Liam Lawson coming to a halt at turn 10 and Cem Bölükbasi sliding into the barriers at turn 9.

For the afternoon session, the track temperature ramped up from fourteen degrees in the morning to nineteen degrees which helped the grid prepare for a few push laps at the end of their race simulations.

Boschung’s initial time of 1m27.929s was nearly two seconds faster than Armstrong’s early benchmark of 1m29.897s. The times started to get faster as the session went on, but nobody was able to topple the Swiss driver’s attempt in Testing.

Most of the times were set on the hard compounds of tyres, with Armstrong, Ayumu Iwasa and Marino Sato being the only drivers to set a time within one second of Boschung on the softer compound of Pirelli tyres.

Two more red flags were brought out in the PM session, with Jüri Vips ending his session after making contact with the barriers at turn 3 and Carlin’s Logan Sargeant following his stoppage at turn 1.

As well as leading the timing sheets, Boschung also led the field with amount of laps completed with him and Williams both crossing the line on fifty-five occasions. The afternoon session saw a lot more running than the morning, with only two drivers posting less than thirty laps on the board.

The second day of in-season testing continues on Wednesday and will run through for a total of three days, ending on Thursday. The grid will then reconvene for round three of the championship which takes place at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola.

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	15	Ralph Boschung	CHE	Campos Racing	1:27.929		87
2	7	Marcus Armstrong	NZL	Hitech Grand Prix	1:28.170	+0.241	56
3	17	Ayumu Iwasa	JPN	DAMS	1:28.331	+0.402	70
4	4	Marino Sato	JPN	Virtuosi Racing	1:28.436	+0.507	60
5	11	Felipe Drugovich	BRA	MP Motorsport	1:29.131	+1.202	57
6	10	Théo Pourchaire	FRA	ART Grand Prix	1:29.312	+1.383	75
7	9	Frederik Vesti	DNK	ART Grand Prix	1:29.383	+1.454	72
8	20	Richard Verschoor	NED	Trident	1:29.439	+1.510	67
9	24	Jake Hughes	GBR	Van Amersfoort Racing	1:29.492	+1.563	73
10	12	Clément Novalak	FRA	MP Motorsport	1:29.495	+1.566	53
11	3	Jack Doohan	AUS	Virtuosi Racing	1:29.777	+1.848	62
12	6	Logan Sargeant	USA	Carlin	1:29.788	+1.859	50
13	16	Roy Nissany	ISR	DAMS	1:29.824	+1.895	56
14	22	Enzo Fittipaldi	BRA	Charouz Racing System	1:29.844	+1.915	62
15	2	Jehan Daruvala	IND	PREMA Racing	1:29.909	+1.980	51
16	21	Calan Williams	AUS	Trident	1:29.975	+2.046	72
17	25	Amuary Cordeel	BEL	Van Amersfoort Racing	1:29.993	+2.064	66
18	5	Liam Lawson	NZL	Carlin	1:30.180	+2.251	59
19	8	Jüri Vips	EST	Hitech Grand Prix	1:30.207	+2.278	36
20	1	Dennis Hauger	NOR	PREMA Racing	1:30.439	+2.510	52
21	14	Olli Caldwell	GBR	Campos Racing	1:30.488	+2.891	76
22	23	Cem Bölükbasi	TUR	Charouz Racing System	1:31.455	+3.526	21