The final lot of testing for Formula 2 has came to an end today, after 3 days of testing in Abu Dhabi, lets take a look at how they got on…
Day 1-
Returning to MP Motorsport, Drugovich set the benchmark during the opening 30 minutes posting a 1:35.577.
There were several red flags during the morning session of the first day, with Clèment Novalak, Amaury Cordeel, Frederick Vesti and Thèo Pourchaire all stopping on track at some point, as well as a coming together between Jüri Vips and Formula 3 champ, Dennis Hauger.
Vips, had briefly set the 3rd fastest time but after the collision he then fell to 6th. Virtuosi’s Doohan jumped to third, ahead of Carlins Liam lawson and Ralph Boschung closed the top 5.
During the afternoon sessions, there were two stoppages quite early on where Cordeel and Vips both needing red flags.
Olli Caldwell was the early pace setter with a 1:40.217 before being replaced by Daruvala. Vesti took the times below 1m 38s for the first time, he then saw Daruvala drop a 1:36.063 which saw him return to P1.
Drugocich and Pourchaire briefly bumped the Prema down to second but Daruvala managed to make his way up to first again, Doohan then got in on the action and moved his way into third to finish as the quickest rookie for the second session in a row.
Day 2-
The morning session got started off and it was very much the same, as Drugovich, Doohan and Daruvala took up the familiar top 3 positions. There was several stoppages during the session with Frederik Vesti, Juan Manuel Correa, Guilherme Samaia, Ayumu Iwasa and Sargeant all requiring red flags during the 3 hour stint.
Drugovich increased his lead at the top, he improved to a 1:35.614. Théo Pourchaire moved to fourth after putting on a new set of tyres. Carlin’s Liam Lawson beat his old HiTech team-mate Jüri Vips to fifth.
Now onto the afternoon session, it was led by Carlins rookie Sargeant who jumped to the top of the leaderboard in the final half hour of the session with a 1:36.155. Joining him up there, Daruvala for the fourth consecutive time in the top 3!
But it was Lawson who set the afternoon pace with a 1:36.802 but eventually fell to P6, ahead of Doohan. Vesti, Hughs and Teppei Natori all caused stoppages in the afternoon session but that didn’t stop seven of the 22 drivers breaking the 50-lap mark.
Day 3-
The most coolest day out of the 3, where we saw Doohan and Drugovich once again dominating going first and second during the early stages of the session. Doohan’s time of a 1:36.110 was enough to make it P1 with Drugovich just 0.029s off, and Ralph Boschung went to 3rd with less than a tenth off as well.
The Carlin duo, Lawson and Sargeant finished in fourth and fifth, the top 5 of the session being separated by less than a tenth. Luckily for the teams and drivers there were no red flags during the morning session which meant half of the field had completed more than 50 laps.
Now onto the afternoon session and we had newcomers Van Amersfoort Racing on top, as Cem Bolukbasi set a 1:37.978 being the benchmark. But it was Drugovich and Daruvala who once again finished first and second with the MP driver setting a 1:36.342.
Boschung and Mercedes junior, Frederik Vesti caused only two stoppages in the afternoon which still meant a lot of running left in the final session and Jüri Vips took full advantage of that as he topped the lap count with 56 and finished fourth.
Formula 3 Champ, Hauger enjoyed his strongest session yet finishing 3rd with Prema, whilst Roy Nissany completed the top 5 with Dams.
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