F2 Abu Dhabi: Points leader Piastri sets the pace in practice

The championship leader surged to the top of the times in the final third of the 45 minute session, courtesy of a 1m36.800s, set on the medium tyres.

It proved to be a hotly-contested session with only 0.035s separating the top three as rookie Jack Doohan emerged as Piastri’s closest rival.

Doohan managed to extract an effort 0.021s slower than Piastri in his MP Motorsport entry, while ART Grand Prix’s Christian Lundgaard was third fastest. 

Title contenders Robert Shwartzman and Guanyu Zhou clocked times good enough for ninth and 11th respectively.

F2 newcomer Clement Novalak was the first to set an indicative time around the revamped circuit, posting a 1m39.489s on the medium tyres.

The benchmark was soon eclipsed first by Jeddah podium finisher Ralph Boschung before Doohan, Marcus Armstrong and Juri Vips enjoyed spells at the top of the times.

Lundgaard lit up the timing screens with 30 minutes of the session remaining, surging to the top with a 1m37.770s. The Dane shaved almost second from that effort becoming the first drivers into the 1m36s bracket.

Piastri emerged as his nearest rival before toppling Lundgaard as the session approached its final 15 minutes. The Australian set a new benchmark which was five thousandths of a second faster than Lundgaard.

Christian Lundgaard, ART Grand Prix

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Boschung sat third ahead of Vips, Doohan, Armstrong and Marino Sato.

Piastri managed to lap even fastest taking 0.030s off his time while countryman Doohan popped up into second spot as the clock ticked towards the final 10 minutes.

The times remained unchanged in the closing minutes of the session as Piastri emerged on top ahead of Doohan and Lundgaard.

Boschung ended the session in fourth fractionally ahead of Novalak while Vips posted the sixth fastest time. The top 10 was completed by Armstrong, Bent Viscaal, Shwartzman and Marino Sato.

Practice ran largely without incident with Roy Nissany the closest to flirting with the circuit’s barriers. 

The field will return for qualifying scheduled for 18:30 local time (14:30 GMT).  

F2 Abu Dhabi - Practice results:

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Oscar Piastri	Prema Powerteam	1'36.800
2	Jack Doohan	MP Motorsport	1'36.821	0.021
3	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	1'36.835	0.035
4	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1'37.299	0.499
5	Clement Novalak	MP Motorsport	1'37.315	0.515
6	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	1'37.339	0.539
7	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	1'37.416	0.616
8	Bent Viscaal	Trident	1'37.615	0.815
9	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	1'37.633	0.833
10	Marino Sato	Trident	1'37.701	0.901
11	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	1'37.738	0.938
12	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	1'37.817	1.017
13	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	1'37.910	1.110
14	Liam Lawson	HitechGP	1'37.915	1.115
15	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	1'37.997	1.197
16	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz Racing System	1'38.101	1.301
17	Roy Nissany	DAMS	1'38.202	1.402
18	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	1'38.207	1.407
19	Richard Verschoor	Charouz Racing System	1'38.387	1.587
20	Olli Caldwell	Campos Racing	1'38.538	1.738
21	Jake Hughes	HWA Racelab	1'39.155	2.355
22	Alessio Deledda	HWA Racelab	1'40.859	4.059
View full results