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F2 testing: Ferrari junior Charles Leclerc leads Bahrain day one

Ferrari junior Charles Leclerc inherited the top spot on the opening day of F2 testing in Bahrain, as initial pace-setter Nobuharu Matsushita lost his time over a red flag infringement

Reigning GP3 champion Leclerc, who will contest the 2017 F2 campaign with reigning champions Prema, had topped the morning session with a 1m41.454s effort.

That lap looked to be good enough to leave him at the top at the end of the first day, with rain arrived shortly after the midday break.

But while the majority of the afternoon session consisted of wet-weather running, the track dried significantly before the end of the session, and a late red flag for Russian Time's Artem Markelov left enough room for a last-minute run.

That gave ART driver Matsushita - who was fastest on the first day of last week's Barcelona test - the chance to vault to the top, the Japanese driver posting a best lap 1m41.165s.

But following the session, the McLaren protege's lap was invalidated as he was found not to have respected red flag proceedings.

As such, Leclerc - who did not get a chance to improve late on - returned to top spot, while Jordan King moved up to second, 0.18 seconds off.

Russian Time's Luca Ghiotto and Arden's Barcelona test pace-setter Norman Nato were third and fourth, while Matsushita's original best time from the morning proved good enough for fifth.

DAMS duo Oliver Rowland and Nicholas Latifi were sixth and seventh, with Matsushita's ART team-mate Alex Albon, Rapax's Nyck de Vries and Prema's Antonio Fuoco making up the top 10.

Louis Deletraz (Racing Engineering) and Rapax's Johnny Cecotto were originally in the top 10 on the strength of their afternoon laps, but like Matsushita also lost their best efforts.

Campos Racing's new test driver Raoul Hyman, who stepped in for ex-F1 driver Roberto Merhi in Bahrain, completed the running order in the morning and was seventh in the afternoon.

COMBINED WEDNESDAY TIMES:

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Charles Leclerc Prema Racing 1m41.454s - 15
2 Jordan King MP Motorsport 1m41.634s 0.180s 10
3 Luca Ghiotto RUSSIAN TIME 1m41.700s 0.246s 15
4 Norman Nato Pertamina Arden 1m41.718s 0.264s 10
5 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1m41.777s 0.323s 15
6 Oliver Rowland DAMS 1m42.005s 0.551s 7
7 Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1m42.104s 0.650s 5
8 Alexander Albon ART Grand Prix 1m42.110s 0.656s 17
9 Nyck de Vries Rapax 1m42.121s 0.667s 7
10 Antonio Fuoco Prema Racing 1m42.167s 0.713s 15
11 Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1m42.201s 0.747s 13
12 Louis Deletraz Racing Engineering 1m42.353s 0.899s 11
13 Johnny Cecotto Jr. Rapax 1m42.596s 1.142s 11
14 Sean Gelael Pertamina Arden 1m42.632s 1.178s 9
15 Ralph Boschung Campos Racing 1m42.890s 1.436s 15
16 Sergio Canamasas Trident 1m42.950s 1.496s 13
17 Nabil Jeffri Trident 1m42.964s 1.510s 15
18 Sergio Sette Camara MP Motorsport 1m43.126s 1.672s 20
19 Gustav Malja Racing Engineering 1m43.263s 1.809s 14
20 Raoul Hyman Campos Racing 1m43.926s 2.472s 19


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