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Testing report

Rookie Beckmann ends first F2 Bahrain test day on top

Rookie David Beckmann topped the times on the opening day of FIA Formula 2 testing in Bahrain.

David Beckmann

David Beckmann

The FIA Formula 3 graduate, driving for Charouz Racing, lowered the day’s benchmark with a 1:42.844s in the final 20 minutes of the three hour afternoon session at the Sakhir Circuit.

Beckmann’s effort was the only lap to dip under the 1:43s bracket, the pace a fair way off the times recorded in last year’s F2 championship round at the venue.

His time was 0.177s faster than that of Carlin’s Dan Ticktum that topped the morning session, and ended up being the second fastest overall on the day.

Drivers and teams spent much of the afternoon session logging race runs before a flurry of fast times arrived in the final 30 minutes.

In fact, Juri Vips, Felipe Drugovich and Christian Lundgaard all had stints holding the top spot during the final hour.

However, it was Beckmann’s effort which held sway in the afternoon session as the German driver headed ART Grand Prix’s Lundgaard by 0.690s.

Last year’s FIA Formula 3 runner-up Theo Pourchaire was third fastest, less than a tenth behind Lundgaard.

UNI Virtuosi driver Drugovich was fourth albeit more than a second adrift of Beckmann, while Hitech Grand Prix’s Vips ended up fifth.

Prema Racing’s Oscar Piastri was among the list of drivers to enjoy a spell at the top of the times, but would go on to slot into sixth spot at the chequered flag.

A late flying lap from Marino Sato (Trident) put the Japanese driver into seventh in front of Liam Lawson (Hitech Grand Prix), Bent Viscaal (Trident) and Guanyu Zhou (UNI Virtuosi), who completed the top 10.

Zhou was able to log significantly more laps in the afternoon compared to his morning run with 28 laps in the books.

It was a similar case for Prema Racing’s Robert Shwartzman although the Ferrari Driver Academy member didn’t appear on track in the first hour.

The Russian climbed up as far as third on the leaderboard before ending the session in 13th position.

Meanwhile, Ticktum, who had topped the morning outing, appeared to spend the afternoon working on race runs that saw him down in 20th at the chequered flag.         

F2 testing continues tomorrow with the day 2 morning session set to begin at 6am UK time.

Bahrain F2 test - Day 1 results:

Pos.   Driver   Morning  Afternoon
1 David Beckmann
Charouz Racing System
1'44.529
31
1'42.844
19
2 Dan Ticktum
Carlin
1'43.021
14
1'48.885
24
3 Christian Lundgaard
ART Grand Prix
1'44.880
21
1'43.534
32
4 Théo Pourchaire
ART Grand Prix
1'45.038
19
1'43.570
36
5 Liam Lawson
Hitech Grand Prix
1'43.621
17
1'44.280
24
6 Jehan Daruvala
Carlin
1'43.761
15
1'49.637
26
7 Felipe Drugovich
UNI-Virtuosi
1'44.706
25
1'43.871
28
8 Jüri Vips
Hitech Grand Prix
1'44.143
16
1'44.079
18
9 Oscar Piastri
Prema Racing
1'44.346
8
1'44.088
21
10 Lirim Zendeli
MP Motorsport
1'44.095
35
1'45.010
36
11 Marino Sato
Trident
1'44.620
15
1'44.279
38
12 Bent Viscaal
Trident
1'44.408
19
1'44.314
40
13 Guanyu Zhou
UNI-Virtuosi
1'45.060
18
1'44.322
28
14 Marcus Armstrong
DAMS
1'44.480
13
1'44.331
34
15 Guilherme Samaia
Charouz Racing System
1'44.332
31
1'45.189
16
16 Roy Nissany
DAMS
1'45.471
18
1'44.581
23
17 Robert Shwartzman
Prema Racing
1'58.546
7
1'44.678
18
18 Richard Verschoor
MP Motorsport
1'44.859
38
1'45.134
39
19 Matteo Nannini
HWA Racelab
1'45.486
26
1'45.316
27
20 Ralph Boschung
Campos Racing
1'45.496
24
1'45.561
17
21 Gianluca Petecof
Campos Racing
1'46.362
27
1'46.238
33
22 Alessio Deledda
HWA Racelab
1'48.816
28
1'48.990

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