Daruvala tops first day of F2 post-season tests

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

India’s Jehan Daruvala set the pace last night on the first day of Formula 2 post-season testing at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir. Daruvala registered a fastest lap of one minute 41.848secs around BIC’s 5.412-kilometre Grand Prix track.

The Carlin driver, who created history last Sunday when he became the first Indian to win an F2 race during the F1 Rolex Sakhir Grand Prix, completed a total of 52 laps in the five-hour session, which featured a total of 22 cars representing all 11 F2 teams.

Finishing second on the timesheet was Dan Ticktum 0.106secs behind to make it a Carlin one-two, while Louis Deletraz of MP Motorsport came third 0.403secs off the pace. P re m a R a c i n g ’s Ro b e r t Shwartzman (+0.405s) and Oscar Piastri (+0.67s), Charouz Racing System’s Callum Ilott (+0.602s), Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung (+0.632s), and Uni-Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou (+0.672s) completed the top eight, while Felipe Drugovich (+0.870s) in the other Uni-Virtuosi car and Christian Lundgaard (+1.008s) of ART Grand Prix rounded out the top 10.

The rest of the timesheet from 11th to 22nd, respectively, included Liam Lawson, Lirim Zendeli, Juri Vips, Marcus Armstrong, Clement Novalak, Theo Pourchaire, Roy Nissany, Logan Sargeant, David Beckmann, Matteo Nannini, Roberto Merhi and Marino Sato. Zhou was the busiest man of the day in the field, completing 60 laps of work during the session’s duration. Testing continues today and tomorrow at BIC. The tests follow the completion of the 2020 F2 season, which held its final two rounds at BIC over the past couple of weeks.

The tests provide F2’s teams and drivers the chance to begin their preparations for the 2021 season, and to draw a line under the 2020 campaign. Pirelli’s hard compound tyre are being used throughout the test, with each car allocated eight sets for the event. For more information, visit bahraingp.com.