Piquet sets F2 pace in testing

TDT | Manama

Pedro Piquet and Devlin DeFrancesco set the pace on Sunday on the first day of their respective pre-season tests being held at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir. Piquet of Charouz Racing System was the overall quickest for the day amongst the runners in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, while DeFrancesco of Trident had the day’s quickest lap in the FIA Formula 3 Championship tests. Both of their best times were set during the afternoon sessions around BIC’s 5.412-kilometre Grand Prix track—the same circuit both series will be racing on when the lights go out for their 2020 seasons in support of the upcoming Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix from March 19 to 22. Testing continues today.

The Formula 2 competitors will be testing from 11.45am to 2.15pm and then from 5.15pm to 7.45pm. The Formula 3 drivers will kick off the day’s action from 9am to 11.30am and then again from 2.30pm to 5pm in their afternoon run. In Formula 2, 22 drivers were in action in both the morning and afternoon test sessions on Sunday. Piquet’s pace-setting lap was one minute 41.877 seconds while completing 31 laps as the floodlights came on at BIC. His time was the only one under a minute and 42 seconds, and he posted the day’s benchmark with only minutes remaining in the session. Nobuharu Matsushita of MP Motorsport was second-best with a lap of 1:42.070 while Jehan Daruvala of Carlin was third-fastest with a 1:42.163 time.

Completing the top six were Roy Nissany of Trident, Marcus Armstrong of ART Grand Prix and Sean Galeal of DAMS. In the morning session, Louis Deletraz of Charouz Racing System was the top man but he was only 0.025s quicker than Matsushita. Deletraz clocked a best lap of 1:43.583 while completing 23 laps as Matsushita followed with a 1:43.608 time in 27 laps. Daruvala had the third-best time in the morning with a lap of 1:44.135, while completing the top six were Piquet, Matsushita’s MP partner Felipe Drugovich and Gelael. In Formula 3, 29 drivers put in the work in both of yesterdays’ sessions. DeFrancesco posted the day’s overall best lap of 1:46.844 while completing 26 laps in the afternoon session.

Alexander Peroni of Campos Racing followed with a time of 1:46.860 with 25 laps of work, while Richard Verschoor of MP Motorsport had his best afternoon time of 1:46.919 with 26 laps put in. Completing the top six were Sebastian Fernandez and Theo Pourchaire of ART Grand Prix, plus Bent Viscaal of MP Motorsport, who had earlier topped the morning times. Viscaal’s best lap during the day session was 1:47.146 while completing 21 laps. Teammate Verschoor followed with a 1:47.499 time and 22 laps completed, while Max Fewtrell and Liam Lawson of Hitech Grand Prix were third and fourth quickest in the morning. Frederik Vesti of PREMA Racing and Alexander Smolyar of ART Grand Prix completed the six quickest drivers.