Albon tops test on day 3 in Abu Dhabi

Alex Albon
Alex Albon

Alex Albon has claimed the fastest lap of the 3 day FIA Formula 2 Championship post-season test at Yas Marina Circuit, topping the 3rd evening session with a lap of 1:48.110 halfway through to top the session ahead of Norman Nato and Nyck De Vries, while earlier in the morning session Arjun Maini was P1 with a time of 1:49.040, holding off rivals Norman Nato and Antonio Fuoco to the flag.

Sunny but windy conditions greeted the field this morning when the session got underway, with Maini grabbing the first competitive laptime after just 7 minutes before being briefly disposed from the top spot by Oliver Rowland and Guanyu Zhou, but the Indian reclaimed the top spot with 2 quick laps around the 40 minute mark.

There was little more to note from the session as the drivers simply pounded out the laps, working on race simulations, although Nato and Fuoco closed the gap to the Indian with 45 minutes remaining of a session that saw little in the way of off-track action.

The evening session saw the teams use the last of their tires to good effect: the first half of the session was fast and frenetic, with Nicholas Latifi making the early running before Albon, Nato, De Vries and Louis Dilator shared P1 between them, being briefly delayed by a red flag for Leonardo Pulcini’s impact at turn 3.

At the halfway mark Albon finally grabbed the position for himself, setting the top time of the test in the process, and with their tires spent the remainder of the session was reasonably quiet. The final test session of 2017 is now concluded: the first test of the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship will run from March 6-8 at Le Castellet, France.

Day 3 Morning results

Pos

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Arjun Maini

RUSSIAN TIME

1:49.040

35

2.

Norman Nato

Rapax

1:49.164

22

3.

Antonio Fuoco

Trident

1:49.382

32

4.

Louis Dilator

MP Motorsport

1:49.396

24

5.

Guanyu Zhou

Rapax

1:49.559

26

6.

Luca Ghiotto

MP Motorsport

1:49.685

22

7.

Oliver Rowland

Racing Engineering

1:50.025

22

8.

Nirei Fukuzumi

Arden International

1:50.153

25

9.

Leonardo Pulcini

Campos Racing

1:50.266

30

10.

Alexander Albon

DAMS

1:50.305

31

11.

Pietro Fittipaldi

Arden International

1:50.507

21

12.

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:50.825

33

13.

Sean Gelael

PREMA Racing

1:50.849

47

14.

Thiago Vivacqua

Racing Engineering

1:51.230

32

15.

Tadasuke Makino

RUSSIAN TIME

1:52.302

24

16.

Lando Norris

Campos Racing

1:52.752

43

17.

Santino Ferrucci

Trident

1:53.079

39

18.

Jack Aitken

ART Grand Prix

1:53.846

28

19.

Nyck De Vries

PREMA Racing

1:53.893

43

20.

George Russell

ART Grand Prix

1:53.897

32


Day 3 Evening results

Pos

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Alexander Albon

RUSSIAN TIME

1:48.110

26

2.

Norman Nato

MP Motorsport

1:48.115

26

3.

Nyck De Vries

DAMS

1:48.380

34

4.

Jack Aitken

PREMA Racing

1:48.422

40

5.

Louis Dilator

Campos Racing

1:48.430

32

6.

Nicholas Latifi

Trident

1:48.452

37

7.

Arjun Maini

ART Grand Prix

1:48.555

30

8.

Luca Ghiotto

DAMS

1:48.632

23

9.

Tadasuke Makino

RUSSIAN TIME

1:48.636

31

10.

Oliver Rowland

Racing Engineering

1:48.661

37

11.

Santino Ferrucci

ART Grand Prix

1:48.824

24

12.

Antonio Fuoco

MP Motorsport

1:48.858

37

13.

Guanyu Zhou

Rapax

1:49.061

32

14.

Nirei Fukuzumi

Racing Engineering

1:49.142

39

15.

Lando Norris

Rapax

1:49.226

29

16.

Sean Gelael

Arden International

1:49.336

34

17.

Leonardo Pulcini

PREMA Racing

1:49.547

35

18.

Pietro Fittipaldi

Trident

1:49.646

31

19.

George Russell

Arden International

1:49.828

11

20.

Thiago Vivacqua

Campos Racing

1:50.242

41