F2: Iwasa sets the pace at Yas Marina, Sargeant 4th

Ayumu Iwasa hit the ground running at Yas Marina ending Free Practice quickest of all, 0.055s ahead of Théo Pourchaire. The DAMS driver strung together his best time early on and nobody could usurp him for the top spot in the remaining time. Logan Sargeant got his weekend off to a good start, ending Practice third fastest in his Carlin despite a last second spin.

Perfect conditions were presented to the drivers as the first session of the final weekend in 2022 got underway. Following plenty of installation laps, the times tumbled as the track ramped up and Marcus Armstrong put in the early benchmark with a 1:38.987.

The New Zealander improved his times as the clock ticked underneath half an hour remaining to lower the top time further to a 1:38.469 before Iwasa put his DAMS top of the pile, with the 0.301s gap predominantly taken in the first sector.

Jüri Vips had been running in the top three but had a lucky escape, avoiding the barriers at Turn 14 after a snap of oversteer almost led him into the barriers.

With 20 minutes to go, the Carlin duo of Liam Lawson and Logan Sargeant moved themselves up to second and fourth respectively. Lawson could only get within 0.267s of Iwasa while Sargeant was 0.377s off the top.

Clément Novalak was the next to find a sizeable improvement, going P2 to edge within a quarter of a second of Iwasa, but only just. The Frenchman finished off his time 0.249s down but ahead of F2 Champion and teammate Felipe Drugovich.

Pourchaire finally cut the gap down to 0.055s with 13 minutes left of Practice, moving up from ninth. A Red Flag was thrown as the clock ticked underneath 10 minutes to go as Ralph Boschung spun into the barriers between Turns 13 and 14. The session got back underway with three minutes to go but nobody could improve over Iwasa’s 1:38.168.

F2 Abu Dhabi Practice Results

POS	No.	Driver and Team	LAPS	TIME	GAP	INT.
1	17	A. Iwasa DAMS	16	1:38.168	0.000	0.000
2	10	T. Pourchaire ART Grand Prix	17	1:38.223	0.055	0.055
3	3	J. Doohan Virtuosi Racing	14	1:38.236	0.068	0.013
4	6	L. Sargeant Carlin	15	1:38.297	0.129	0.061
5	5	L. Lawson Carlin	17	1:38.372	0.204	0.075
6	12	C. Novalak MP Motorsport	16	1:38.417	0.249	0.045
7	7	M. Armstrong Hitech Grand Prix	14	1:38.469	0.301	0.052
8	8	J. Vips Hitech Grand Prix	15	1:38.490	0.322	0.021
9	9	F. Vesti ART Grand Prix	17	1:38.609	0.441	0.119
10	11	F. Drugovich MP Motorsport	17	1:38.612	0.444	0.003
11	16	R. Nissany DAMS	15	1:38.765	0.597	0.153
12	4	M. Sato Virtuosi Racing	17	1:38.766	0.598	0.001
13	25	A. Cordeel Van Amersfoort Racing	17	1:38.773	0.605	0.007
14	24	J. Correa Van Amersfoort Racing	16	1:38.795	0.627	0.022
15	1	D. Hauger PREMA Racing	16	1:38.895	0.727	0.100
16	2	J. Daruvala PREMA Racing	15	1:39.055	0.887	0.160
1720	20	R. Verschoor Trident	16	1:39.136	0.968	0.081
18	15	R. Boschung Campos Racing	14	1:39.349	1.181	0.213
19	14	O. Caldwell Campos Racing	17	1:39.354	1.186	0.005
20	22	E. Fittipaldi Charouz Racing System	17	1:39.393	1.225	0.039
21	21	Z. MaloneyTrident	15	1:39.935	1.767	0.542
22	23	T. Calderón Charouz Racing System	17	1:40.276	2.108	0.341