Formula 2 Hot News

Ghiotto tops F2 pre-season testing

Luca Ghiotto
Luca Ghiotto

Rookies may have ruled days one and two of pre-season testing, but it was experience which took the plaudits on the final day, as Luca Ghiotto claimed the fastest time overall. The Hitech Grand Prix racer beat out Felipe Drugovich and Jack Aitken for top spot, ahead of the new season.

Jehan Daruvala picked up from where he left off on the final day, beginning the session at the top of the timesheets, touring around the increasingly warm track at 1:43.428. Giuliano Alesi and Yuki Tsunoda were the men closest to the Indian.

The morning was heavily focused on long-runs and race simulations ahead of the season opener here later this month, with the majority of drivers all posting upwards of 30 laps.

The leaderboard wouldn’t change as the penultimate session came to a close. Daruvala finished on top with the time he set early on in the morning. Alesi and Tsunoda followed behind him in the order, with Artem Markelov and Louis Deletraz completing the top five.

With the sun beginning to set on the Sakhir desert, the drivers fed back onto the circuit for the final session and Robert Shwartzman immediately posted the fastest time of the day, to take an early lead with 1:43.028.

The Russian was pipped by his teammate just moments later, as Mick Schumacher took us below 1m 42s for the first time on Day 3. This sparked a two-way battled between the duo to go fastest, with Shwartzman briefly usurping the German, before Schumacher once again went top.

2019 race winners Ghiotto and Aitken had shown sparks of quality throughout testing but were yet to truly dominate. At the halfway mark, the duo punched in quick times to take P1 and P2 in the standings, with the Italian setting the fastest time overall in
testing.

Rookie Drugovich nipped in-between the two of them to take second fastest, with Schumacher and Nobuharu Matsushita taking fourth and fifth. Nikita Mazepin, Shwartzman, Deletraz, Sean Gelael and Callum Ilott completed the top ten.

The next time we hit the track will be for the opening race of the 2020 campaign here in Bahrain. With two new faces and one returning favorite topping the times across the three days, the season is set to be as competitive and as compelling as ever.

AM Times

POS DRIVER TEAM TIME LAPS
1 Nikita Mazepin Hitech Grand Prix 1:43.825 19
2 Luca Ghiotto Hitech Grand Prix 1:43.830 29
3 Artem Markelov BWT HWA RACELAB 1:43.882 23
4 Guanyu Zhou UNI-Virtuosi 1:43.978 31
5 Jack Aitken Campos Racing 1:43.986 36
6 Giuliano Alesi BWT HWA RACELAB 1:44.987 32
7 Marino Sato Trident 1:45.251 37
8 Callum Ilott UNI-Virtuosi 1:45.578 29
9 Felipe Drugovich MP Motorsport 1:45.636 29
10 Guilherme Samaia Campos Racing 1:45.867 28
11 Louis Deletraz Charouz Racing System 1:46.997 39
12 Mick Schumacher PREMA Racing 1:47.231 38
13 Pedro Piquet Charouz Racing System 1:47.242 41
14 Nobuharu Matsushita MP Motorsport 1:47.573 37
15 Sean Gelael DAMS 1:47.590 43
16 Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1:47.601 33
17 Robert Shwartzman PREMA Racing 1:48.003 38
18 Dan Ticktum DAMS 1:48.036 37
19 Marcus Armstrong ART Grand Prix 1:48.852 42
20 Yuki Tsunoda Carlin 1:48.857 45
21 Jehan Daruvala Carlin 1:48.938 45
22 Roy Nissany Trident 1:49.207 35

PM Times

POS DRIVER TEAM TIME LAPS
1 Luca Ghiotto Hitech Grand Prix 1:41.252 31
2 Felipe Drugovich MP Motorsport 1:41.324 27
3 Jack Aitken Campos Racing 1:41.568 30
4 Mick Schumacher PREMA Racing 1:41.611 31
5 Nobuharu Matsushita MP Motorsport 1:41.612 26
6 Nikita Mazepin Hitech Grand Prix 1:41.634 29
7 Robert Shwartzman PREMA Racing 1:41.655 33
8 Louis Deletraz Charouz Racing System 1:41.864 18
9 Sean Gelael DAMS 1:41.911 27
10 Callum Ilott UNI-Virtuosi 1:41.943 29
11 Pedro Piquet Charouz Racing System 1:42.097 20
12 Dan Ticktum DAMS 1:42.140 27
13 Guilherme Samaia Campos Racing 1:42.399 36
14 Guanyu Zhou UNI-Virtuosi 1:42.448 36
15 Roy Nissany Trident 1:42.878 20
16 Marino Sato Trident 1:43.922 15
17 Yuki Tsunoda Carlin 1:44.496 32
18 Jehan Daruvala Carlin 1:44.653 31
19 Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1:44.679 23
20 Artem Markelov BWT HWA RACELAB 1:45.552 40
21 Giuliano Alesi BWT HWA RACELAB 1:45.675 46
22 Marcus Armstrong ART Grand Prix 1:48.577 3