Jehan Daruvala fastest in Day One of F2 Post-Season Testing

Formula 2’s latest race winner beat out the other Carlin car of Dan Ticktum to top the first day of F2 Post-Season Testing in Bahrain.

The two Carlin drivers by a tenth as their car looks super strong for next season especially at a fast track like Bahrain which has three straights, but tricky turning sections which will need the utmost control, precision and focus to handle them.

Louis Deletraz came third after his lap time of 1:42.251 was three-tenths slower than Ticktum and over four-tenths slower than Daruvala. The Swiss driver made the switch from Charouz Racing System and jumped into the MP Motorsport car.

Two Prema drivers followed in fourth and fifth. Robert Shwartzman has been confirmed as a Prema driver for next year as he came close to third-fastest missing out by two-thousands. Shwartzman’s teammate for next season is F3 Champion Oscar Piastri as the rookie was nearly two-tenths slower than the Russian and slotted into fifth.

F2 vice-champion jumped into the Charouz car and came sixth fastest as he was three-hundredths slower than Piastri and six-tenths away from Daruvala at the top.

On his F2 return, Ralph Boschung came seventh fastest and was only three-hundredths slower than Ilott.  The UNI-Virtuosi team came eighth and ninth as Guanyu Zhou was two-tenths quicker than new teammate and a three-time winner from the F2 2020 season Felipe Drugovich.

Christian Lundgaard remained in his ART Grand Prix car as he was one second off of Daruvala and over one-tenth slower than Drugovich as the Renault Academy driver finished day one in tenth.

Liam Lawson and Lirim Zendeli made the step-up from F3 to try out F2 machinery as the pair jumped into the Hitech and MP Motorsport as the two rookies were separated by three-hundredths finishing the first day of testing in 11th and 12th.

The returning Juri Vips appeared in the Hitech Grand Prix car and was nearly a tenth slower than Lawson and was 13th. Marcus Armstrong made the switch over to DAMS and was 14th, the quicker DAMS car of day one.

Clement Novalak completed the second-lowest laps around the Bahrain International Circuit (35) as he put his Trident car in 15th. Theo Pourchaire returned for testing after completing a few races in the BWT HWA Racelab car. He drove the second ART Grand Prix and was around two-tenths slower than Lundgaard and finished 16th.

Roy Nissany tested the DAMS car and was six-hundredths slower than Armstrong as he managed to reach the half-century mark in testing. Logan Sargeant, David Beckmann and Matteo Nannini were separated by three-tenths as the rookies tested the Campos, Charouz and BWT HWA Racelab cars respectively in their search to step-up from F3.

Roberto Merhi has been absent in F2 since 2018 where he drove for MP Motorsport and Campos in a season that he finished 12th in the Championship. He tested the BWT HWA Racelab and was the second-slowest driver on the day over two seconds slower than Daruvala and six-tenths slower than Nannini.

Marino Sato was the slowest driver of day one as his Trident two and a half seconds slower than the Carlin of Daruvala and two and a half tenths slower than Merhi.

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