Verschoor, Saucy set day two pace
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Richard Verschoor and Gregoire Saucy were the pace-setters yesterday on the second day of pre-season testing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship and FIA Formula 3 Championship at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.
“The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East” was again the setting for another full day of on-track running, featuring the future stars of Formula 1.
Verschoor of Van Amersfoort Racing was the fastest man amongst the 22 F2 participants, while Saucy of ART Grand Prix had the best overall time for the second successive day in the 30- car F3 tests.
The joint-testing for both series wraps up today at BIC.
The final day will once again see F3 on track first from 9am to 11.30am, and then again in the afternoon from 2.30pm to 5pm.
F2’s contenders will hit the tarmac from 11.45am to 2.15pm and then again from 5.15pm to 7.45pm.
The F2 and F3 stars will be back in action at BIC in around two weeks’ time for the start of their respective 2023 seasons, taking place in support of this year’s Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix from 3 to 5 March in Sakhir.
This week’s pre-season tests marked the only time they sampled their cars out on track ahead of their new campaigns.
In yesterday’s F2 tests, Verschoor shone brightest under BIC’s state-of-the-art floodlights and clocked testing’s best time of the day of one minute 42.140 seconds during his evening run.
It was a tight battle for the top spot on the combined F2 timesheet as Verschoor outpaced Victor Martins of ART Grand Prix by a mere eight-thousandths of a second, with Martins posting his best of 1:42.148.
Only five-tenths of a second separated the top eight times, all of which came in the quicker evening session.
Dennis Hauger of MP Motorsport was classified third with a fastest lap of 1:42.378 while Arthur Leclerc of DAMS was fourth on 1:42.437 and Ralph Boschung of Campos Racing fifth on 1:42.489.
Jack Doohan (1:42.523) of Virtuosi Racing, Ayumu Iwasa (1:42.617) of DAMS and Oliver Bearman (1:42.640) of PREMA Racing rounded out the top eight.
In the morning test, Frederik Vesti of PREMA Racing was F2’s quickest with a time of 1:44.234.
Boschung came second in 1:46.181, while Leclerc completed the top three in 1:46.516.
In F3, Saucy registered the day’s overall fastest lap during their morning session.
Saucy posted a best time of 1:46.642, a half-a-second quicker than Dino Beganovic of PREMA, whose top mark was 1:47.121.
Gabriele Mini of Hitech PulseEight was classified third on the morning timesheet with a lap of 1:47.166, while Gabriel Bortoleto of Trident was fourth on 1:47.197 and Franco Colapinto of MP Motorsport fifth on 1:47.266.
Nikola Tsolov (1:47.287) of ART Grand Prix and Luke Browning (1:47.339) of Hitech Pulse-Eight were sixth and seventh, while Kaylen Frederick (1:47.359) ensured all three ART Grand Prix cars were in the top eight, which were also the fastest times of the day.
In the afternoon session, Mini led the F3 field with a best lap time of 1:48.175 in his Hitech challenger.
Saucy followed with a time of 1:48.211 while Mini’s Hitech teammate Sebastian Montoya was classified third on 1:48.274.
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