Carlin’s Dan Ticktum was the quickest driver of the morning session with rookie David Beckmann topping the timing charts in the afternoon session at Formula Two’s first day of Pre-Season testing.
Morning
After an action-packed first session back since the F2 Finale back in December, Dan Ticktum switched from DAMS to Carlin and was the quickest out of the blocks.
With a lap time of 1:43.021, the Brit was 0.6 seconds faster than second-place rookie Liam Lawson, who was able to put his Hitech car high up and be the best-placed rookie in the morning session.
The second Carlin, Jehan Daruvala was nearly one and a half tenths slower than the Kiwi with Lirim Zendeli nearly four-tenths slower than the 22-year-old Indian with the first MP Motorsport sat in fourth.
Juri Vips on his return to F2 finished the morning session in fifth only half a tenth slower than Zendeli. Guilherme Samaia finished sixth with the first Prema of Oscar Piastri in seventh.
Bent Viscaal, Marcus Armstrong and David Beckmann rounded off the top 10 for the morning session with the drivers in the top ten separated by one and a half seconds.
Marino Sato was nearly one-tenth slower than Beckmann as the Japanese driver finished 11th in the morning. Felipe Drugovich was the highest placed UNI-Virtuosi in 12th with Richard Verschoor in 13th and the two ART’s of Christian Lundgaard and Theo Pourchaire in 14th and 15th respectively.
The second UNI-Virtuosi car of Guanyu Zhou was nearly four-tenths slower than his teammate with the Chinese driver ending the morning in 16th.
Roy Nissany placed 17th, seven places lower than his teammate Armstrong. Matteo Nannini was the best-placed HWA Racelab in 18th, the best-placed Campos of Ralph Boschung in 19th followed by his teammate Gianluca Petecof in 20th.
Alessio Deledda finished 21st with Robert Shwartzman’s Prema finishing plum last in the morning session, over 15 seconds slower than Ticktum and nearly ten seconds slower than Deledda.
Afternoon
From 10th to first, Beckmann was right at the top of the timings charts when the afternoon session. With a time of 1:42.844, he was nearly seven-tenths quicker than second-place Lundgaard and nearly seven and a half tenths quicker than ART teammate Pourchaire in third.
After a mediocre morning, Drugovich was able to lift his UNI-Virtuosi car into fourth place, over a second slower than Beckmann.
Vips finished the morning in fifth and finished the afternoon in fifth with the Estonian very consistent through the first day of Pre-Season testing.
Piastri was the leading Prema in sixth with the leading Trident of Sato in seventh. Hitech’s Lawson finished one millisecond slower than Sato in eighth with Viscaal and Zhou rounding out the top 10.
Armstrong outperformed Nissany as the Aussie finished 11th with the Israeli finished in 12th, two and a half tenths slower than his teammate.
Shwartzman followed in 13th with the two MP Motorsport’s of Zendeli and Verschoor in 14th and 15th respectively.
Charouz’s Samaia was 16th, Nannini finished the afternoon in 17th with the two Campos’ of Boschung and Petecof in 18th and 19th.
At the bottom of the timing charts for the afternoon were the two dominant Carlin’s in the morning they were first and third, but in the afternoon they finished 20th and 22nd with Deledda sandwiched between them in 21st.
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