F2: Gabriele Mini takes the lead on the second day of testing
The third and final day of official Formula 2 testing starts today in Bahrain at the Sahir Circuit, but it will happen in the afternoon. And the night before, Gabriele Mini showed the best time: he completed a lap in 1 min. 42.488 seconds.
So far, the Italian Prema Racing racer and participant of the Alpine F1 youth program remains the author of the fastest lap, although today his result may well be blocked.
Richard Fershor, driving for MP Motorsport, was in the lead in Thursday's first session, with a time of 1:46.475. In this session, most of the riders worked with soft tires, and different riders rose to the top of the leaderboard. During the day, the results gradually improved, and noticeably.
For example, the same Fershor drove a lap in 1:48.119 in the first 15 minutes of the session, and Joshua Durksen, who was leading in the Formula 2 individual standings after the first stage of the season, improved the Dutchman's time, but only to 1:47.984. But by the end of the day, the racers were already doing laps five seconds faster.
In the evening session, which was already under floodlights, when the air and asphalt temperatures were slightly lower, the speeds increased, and soon Durksen completed a lap in 1:43.832, and only by the second hour of work on the track his time was blocked by Jack Crawford, an American DAMS racer: his result was more than three tenths better..
Pepe Marti, driving for Campos Racing, became the first to complete a lap faster than 1 minute 43 seconds, but then many others followed his example. And the fact that Gabriele Mini was the fastest at the end of the day has already been mentioned – he showed the best time about 40 minutes before the end of the session.
But Victor Martin, an experienced ART rider who was in the lead on the first day of testing, lost to him by only 0.095 seconds. Last year, his team was plagued by difficulties that were dealt with only in the second half of the season, and in 2025, the French racer intends to recoup.
"Towards the end of last season, we began to better understand the behavior of this car and how it works," said Victor. – I think that the range of optimal settings is very narrow, and to get into this window, you constantly have to find a compromise.
But I think I'm generally happy with the car right now, we've already worked on three different tracks – Barcelona, Melbourne and here, so we're already well aware of our capabilities. Every time I go on the track, I know that the team understands what needs to be done. All this is different from last year's situation, when we weren't sure about it, we didn't know what goals to set for ourselves and how to achieve them. I know that now, so I'm in a much better mood."
Presumably, Victor and his team have already started to demonstrate this, because it was he who won the first qualifying of the season, but the race in which he was supposed to start from pole position was canceled.
Results of the first session
Pilot
The Time Team
Circles
1. R.Fershor
MP Motorsport
1:46.475
34
2. O. Goethe
MP Motorsport
1:46.649
35
3. D.Durksen
AIX Racing
1:47.984
43
4. D.Bennett
Van Amrsfoort Racing
1:48.360
36
5. V.Martin
ART
1:48.463
49
6. R.Miata
ART
1:48.468
49
7. S.Montoya
Prema
1:48.595
32
8. G.Mini
Prema
1:48.615
33
9. p.Stanek
Invicta Racing
1:48.726
44
10. P.Marti
Campos
1:49.186
42
11. L.Fornaroli
Invicta Racing
1:49.332
46
12. R.Villagomes
Van Amrsfoort Racing
1:49.417
39
13. A.Lindblad
Campos
1:49.615
44
14. K. Shields
AIX Racing
1:49.931
32
15. K.Maini
DAMS
1:50.013
40
16. A.Kordil
Rodin Motorsport
1:50.198
41
17. A Dune
Rodin Motorsport
1:50.262
36
18. L. Browning
Hitech
1:50.401
36
19. D. Crawford
DAMS
1:50.432
41
20. D. Beganovich
Hitech
1:50.696
39
21. S.Megetunif
Trident
1:50.719
30
22. M.Esterson
Trident
1:50.778
29
Results of the second session
Pilot
The Time Team
Circles
1. G.Mini
Prema
1:42.488
19
2. V.Martin
ART
1:42.583
20
3. R.Stanek
Invicta Racing
1:42.751
23
4. L.Fornaroli
Invicta Racing
1:42.828
32
5. R.Fershor
MP Motorsport
1:42.867
30
6. P.Marty
Campos
1:42.959
18
7. O. Goethe
MP Motorsport
1:42.990
30
8. R.Miata
ART
1:43.000
20
9. D.Crawford
DAMS
1:43.002
34
10. S.Megetunif
Trident
1:43.023
15
11. A.Lindblad
Campos
1:43.039
19
12. A.Dunne
Rodin Motorsport
1:43.073
19
13. M.Esterson
Trident
1:43.075
15
14. R.Villagomez
Van Amrsfoort Racing
1:43.092
37
15. A.Kordil
Rodin Motorsport
1:43.141
19
16. S. Montoya
Prema
1:43.155
19
17. D. Beganovich
Hitech
1:43.175
23
18. D. Bennett
Van Amrsfoort Racing
1:43.332
32
19. L. Browning
Hitech
1:43.347
23
20. K.Maini
DAMS
1:43.670
27
21. D.Durksen
AIX Racing
1:43.832
28
22. K. Shields
AIX Racing
1:44.035
19
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