Maloney, Browning set testing pace

TDT | Manama                                                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Barbadian Zane Maloney and Briton Luke Browning were quickest yesterday on the second day of Formula 2 and Formula 3 pre-season testing in Bahrain.

After a rain-hit first day on Sunday at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir, the two Formula 1 feeder series enjoyed sunshine and more pleasant ontrack conditions yesterday, getting extensive running in their 2024 challengers as they continued their final preparations for the start of their respective seasons.

Maloney powered his Rodin Motorsport contender to the top of the overall times in the two F2 sessions, while Browning was best on the day for Hitech PulseEight amongst the F3 runners. Action continues today at BIC with the third and final day of tests.

F2 will be in action from 11.45am to 2.15pm and again from 5.15pm to 7.45pm. F3 will be on track from 9am to 11.30am and then again from 2.30pm to 5pm.

Maloney went fastest yesterday under lights at BIC during the evening tests, clocking a leading lap time of one minute 41.501 seconds.

He completed a total of 63 laps of work for the day, and was 0.125 seconds quicker overall than American Jak Crawford of DAMS Lucas Oil.

Brazilian Enzo Fittipaldi of Van Amersfoort racing finished third on the classification 0.234s behind, while Frenchman Isack Hadjar put Campos Racing in fourth 0.420s back.

India’s Kush Maini, who was quickest during F2’s morning runs yesterday, was ahead of Brazilian teammate Gabriel Bortoleto in their Invicta Racing cars.

Maini was 0.481s behind Maloney on the times while Bortoleto was 0.648s slower.

The pair of Briton Zak O’Sullivan and Frenchman Victor Martins testing for defending F2 champions ART Grand Prix came seventh and eighth, respectively, while rounding off the top 10 were Juan Manuel Correa (+0.793s) of the US for DAMS and Argentinian Franco Colapinto (+0.812s) of MP Motorsport.

Pace

Meanwhile, Browning set the day’s overall pace amongst the 30 F3 cars in action.

He posted a best lap time of 1:46.819 during his afternoon run, while completing 64 laps in total behind the wheel.

Irish rookie Alexander Dunne of MP Motorsport followed close behind 0.066s off Browning’s pace, while Austrian Charlie Wurz, also in his debut F3 season, steered his Jenzer Motorsport contender to third on the timesheet 0.144s from the top.

Spaniard Mari Boya of Campos Racing was fourth 0.145s behind the leader, while German rookie Tim Tramnitz in another MP car was fifth 0.157s adrift.

Completing the top 10 amongst the F3 runners were Italian Nikita Bedrin (+0.303s) of PHM AIX Racing, his countryman Gabriele Mini (+0.485s) of reigning F3 champions Prema Racing, German Oliver Goethe (+0.513s) of Campos Racing, Italian Leonardo Fornaroli (+0.745s) of Trident, and Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov (+0.760s) of ART Grand Prix.

F2 and F3 are set to kick off their 2024 seasons later this month with their first rounds supporting the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2024, taking place February 29 to March 2 at BIC. The F2 season is set to feature 14 rounds while F3 will have 10 rounds.