F2 Abu Dhabi- Day 1

Our first day of cars on track is over and it was our last free practice and qualifying of the year, lets take a look on what happened!

Free Practice-

Championship leader, Oscar Piastri got the start he wanted this weekend by finishing fastest in free practice, the 1:36.800 was enough to beat Jack Doohan to P1, with Christian Lundgaard in third.

The second weekend in a row both MP’s went out first to get a feel for the track with Clèment Novalak setting the benchmark at 1:59.442.

But his team-mate Jack Doohan topped the times at the end of the first run of flying laps with a 1:37.702 ahead of Marcus Armstrong and Ralph Boschung.

Lundgaard beat Piastri to P1 halfway through the session and he was the first to break the 1m 37s but the Prema driver fought back and re-gained the position by 0.005s.

As the session went on the track conditions were improving after heavy tyre wear, this saw lots of fast times coming through but it was Oscar who stayed at the top.

Qualifying-

Oscar Piastri finished his last qualifying session in Formula 2 with a FIFTH consecutive pole position lapping a 1:35.077, in which he now has four extra points to add to his tally, one step closer to claiming the Drivers title! It was Jack Doohan who impressed the most with him qualifying 2nd in only his second qualifying session in Formula 2 with Guanyu Zhou finishing off the top 3.

PREMA was the early pace setters, with Piastri setting a 1:36.044 ahead of his team-mate and championship rival Robert Shwartzman and Carlins’ Jehan Daruvala.

The times kept coming during the half hour, with improvements being made but none dethroning Piastri. The grid then went in to the pits to change tyres etc so they could come out on a fresh set and see if they can improve their times.

The final top 10 for the feature race on Sunday are: P1: Piastri, P2: Doohan, P3: Zhou, P4: Shwartzman, P5: Boschung, P6: Pourchaire, P7: Lawson, P8: Drugovich, P9: Ticktum and P10: Daruvala.

So for our first Sprint Race tomorrow we have an all Carlin front row, with Jehan Daruvala in P1 and Dan Ticktum in P2. Drugovich in P3 and Liam Lawson in P4 making that our second row.

All eyes are on to tomorrow now, with the battle heating up between the Prema team-mates for the championship!