Lundgaard fastest as Bahrain F2 testing continues

Christian Lundgaard set the fastest time in FIA Formula 2 pre-season testing so far to top the morning session on the second day in Bahrain.

The ART Grand Prix racer was the only the driver to dip under the 1m42s bracket as the Dane fired in an effort only 0.218s shy of the pole position time set by Callum Ilott at last year’s championship round at the Sakhir circuit.

Lundgaard had emerged at the top of the timesheets in the first hour with a 1m43.514s before progressing to a 1m41.697s, set midway through the three hour session, which ultimately stood until the chequered flag.

Times in general were much faster than those seen on the opening day as teams and drivers appeared to focus on qualifying simulations, logging far more laps compared to yesterday.

F2 rookie Bent Viscaal, driving for Trident, proved to be Lundgaard’s nearest challenger with the Dutchman having sat at the top of the leaderboard until the ART driver struck, leaving him 0.331s adrift.

New Zealander Marcus Armstrong was third fastest, only 0.010s shy in the #17 DAMS entry, but ahead of countryman Liam Lawson (Hitech Grand Prix) in fourth.

One of the early title contenders Robert Shwartzman enjoyed a far more productive second day of the test, logging 27 laps as he ended up fifth, in front of the second Hitech Grand Prix entry of Juri Vips.

The top 10 was completed by 2020 FIA Formula 3 runner-up Theo Pourchaire (ART Grand Prix), Roy Nissany (DAMS), reigning F3 champion Oscar Piastri (Prema Racing) and Trident’s Marino Sato.

Dan Ticktum

Yesterday’s pacesetters Dan Ticktum (Carlin) and David Beckmann (Charouz Racing) were 11th and 14th fastest respectively.

Charouz Racing’s Guilherme Samaia logged the most mileage putting 50 laps in the books in a session that was interrupted by two brief red flag periods.

The session was halted in the first and last hour, with the second stoppage appeared to have been caused by HWA Racelab’s Alessio Deledda, who suffered a mechanical issue in the final 20 minutes of the session.

Teams will be back in action later today for the afternoon session which concludes at 2pm GMT.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	1'41.697		39
2	Bent Viscaal	Trident	1'42.028	0.331	28
3	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	1'42.038	0.341	26
4	Liam Lawson	Hitech Grand Prix	1'42.256	0.559	28
5	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Racing	1'42.257	0.560	27
6	Jüri Vips	Hitech Grand Prix	1'42.299	0.602	22
7	Théo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	1'42.347	0.650	42
8	Roy Nissany	DAMS	1'42.419	0.722	31
9	Oscar Piastri	Prema Racing	1'42.462	0.765	32
10	Marino Sato	Trident	1'42.997	1.300	27
11	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	1'43.158	1.461	35
12	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1'43.206	1.509	40
13	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	1'43.616	1.919	35
14	David Beckmann	Charouz Racing System	1'43.954	2.257	48
15	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	1'43.997	2.300	38
16	Lirim Zendeli	MP Motorsport	1'44.346	2.649	31
17	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	1'44.485	2.788	31
18	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz Racing System	1'44.575	2.878	50
19	Gianluca Petecof	Campos Racing	1'45.419	3.722	33
20	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	1'45.865	4.168	46
21	Matteo Nannini	HWA Racelab	1'45.865	4.168	20
22	Alessio Deledda	HWA Racelab	1'46.413	4.716	13