Albon fastest on day two in Barcelona

Thai fastest, but De Vries tops afternoon session

By Franck Drui

14 March 2017 - 18:02
Albon fastest on day two in Barcelona

Alexander Albon stepped up a spot overnight to take the day two honours with the fastest time in this morning’s FIA Formula 2 Championship test session in Barcelona, grabbing the top spot from Johnny Cecotto and Artem Markelov by 0.175s, while Nyck De Vries stole the top spot this afternoon in a session largely dedicated to race simulations, ahead of PREMA pairing Antonio Fuoco and Charles Leclerc.

The Thai driver topped this morning’s session with a time of 1:28.225 under sunny conditions, claiming the top spot in the final hour of a session which was stopped twice by red flags: first to allow the circuit operators to inspect a section of the track which has had heavy recent use by the Formula 1 teams, and secondly as a result of Gustav Malja stopping on track.

The session saw a lot of competition between the teams for the top spot, initially from Oliver Rowland and Norman Nato before Albon annexed P1, and although Cecotto got to within a hundredth of his time, the rest of the field was unable to close down the Thai driver’s time.

The afternoon’s session, by contrast, was largely about race simulations, and with no on-track incidents the teams were largely satisfied with their progress. Jordan King led Sean Gelael and Ralph Boschung for the first half of the session, with Sergio Canamasas popping up to P2 with an hour remaining, but in the final half hour a number of the drivers turned their attention to lap times once again.

Fuoco was the first driver to blast through the race lap times, with teammate Leclerc soon following suit in P2, but De Vries soon emerged, taking two consecutive fastest laps to annex the top spot with a lap time of 1:29.223, grabbing P1 by 0.378s as the session wound down ahead of the PREMA pair.

Tomorrow is the final day of this test: the circuit will open once more at 9:00 CET.

Morning results

PosDriverTeamTimeLaps
1. Alexander Albon ART Grand Prix 1:28.225 35
2. Johnny Cecotto Rapax 1:28.250 28
3. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:28.410 42
4. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:28.429 26
5. Norman Nato Pertamina Arden 1:28.445 26
6. Luca Ghiotto RUSSIAN TIME 1:28.541 27
7. Oliver Rowland DAMS 1:28.642 25
8. Antonio Fuoco PREMA Racing 1:28.655 24
9. Jordan King MP Motorsport 1:28.722 24
10. Charles Leclerc PREMA Racing 1:28.805 29
11. Louis Deletraz Racing Engineering 1:28.887 33
12. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:29.040 35
13. Sergio Sette Camara MP Motorsport 1:29.184 32
14. Ralph Boschung Campos Racing 1:29.248 33
15. Sergio Canamasas Trident 1:29.337 26
16. Nyck De Vries Rapax0.378s 1:29.429 25
17. Sean Gelael Pertamina Arden 1:29.906 14
18. Roberto Merhi Campos Racing 1:30.085 34
19. Nabil Jeffri Trident 1:30.588 26
20. Gustav Malja Racing Engineering - 32

Afternoon results

PosDriverTeamTimeLaps
1. Nyck De Vries Rapax 1:29.223 28
2. Antonio Fuoco PREMA Racing 1:29.601 50
3. Charles Leclerc PREMA Racing 1:29.602 33
4. Johnny Cecotto Rapax 1:29.847 28
5. Roberto Merhi Campos Racing 1:30.053 31
6. Jordan King MP Motorsport 1:30.127 41
7. Sergio Canamasas Trident 1:30.404 33
8. Nabil Jeffri Trident 1:30.518 31
9. Sean Gelael Pertamina Arden 1:30.680 37
10. Ralph Boschung Campos Racing 1:30.885 31
11. Gustav Malja Racing Engineering 1:32.932 44
12. Luca Ghiotto RUSSIAN TIME 1:33.557 30
13. Oliver Rowland DAMS 1:33.723 27
14. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:33.813 29
15. Louis Deletraz Racing Engineering 1:33.864 42
16. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:33.867 38
17. Alexander Albon ART Grand Prix 1:33.991 54
18. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:34.073 50
19. Norman Nato Pertamina Arden 1:34.466 38
20. Sergio Sette Camara MP Motorsport 1:34.887 38

F2

Search

Motorsport news

Pics

Videos