14/03/2017
NEWS STORY
Alexander Albon (pictured) stepped up a spot overnight to take the day two honours with the fastest time in this morning's Formula 2 test session in Barcelona, grabbing the top spot from Johnny Cecotto and Artem Markelov by 0.175s, while Nyck De Vries stole the top spot this afternoon in a session largely dedicated to race simulations, ahead of PREMA pairing Antonio Fuoco and Charles Leclerc.
The Thai driver topped this morning's session with a time of 1:28.225 under sunny conditions, claiming the top spot in the final hour of a session which was stopped twice by red flags: first to allow the circuit operators to inspect a section of the track which has had heavy recent use by the Formula 1 teams, and secondly as a result of Gustav Malja stopping on track.
The session saw a lot of competition between the teams for the top spot, initially from Oliver Rowland and Norman Nato before Albon annexed P1, and although Cecotto got to within a hundredth of his time, the rest of the field was unable to close down the Thai driver's time.
The afternoon's session, by contrast, was largely about race simulations, and with no on-track incidents the teams were largely satisfied with their progress. Jordan King led Sean Gelael and Ralph Boschung for the first half of the session, with Sergio Canamasas popping up to P2 with an hour remaining, but in the final half hour a number of the drivers turned their attention to lap times once again.
Fuoco was the first driver to blast through the race lap times, with teammate Leclerc soon following suit in P2, but De Vries soon emerged, taking two consecutive fastest laps to annex the top spot with a lap time of 1:29.223, grabbing P1 by 0.378s as the session wound down ahead of the PREMA pair.
Day 1 Morning results *
1. Alexander Albon ART Grand Prix 1:28.225
2. Johnny Cecotto Rapax 1:28.250
3. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:28.410
4. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:28.429
5. Norman Nato Pertamina Arden 1:28.445
6. Luca Ghiotto RUSSIAN TIME 1:28.541
7. Oliver Rowland DAMS 1:28.642
8. Antonio Fuoco PREMA Racing 1:28.655
9. Jordan King MP Motorsport 1:28.722
10. Charles Leclerc PREMA Racing 1:28.805
11. Louis Deletraz Racing Engineering 1:28.887
12. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:29.040
13. Sergio Sette Camara MP Motorsport 1:29.184
14. Ralph Boschung Campos Racing 1:29.248
15. Sergio Canamasas Trident 1:29.337
16. Nyck De Vries Rapax0.378s 1:29.429
17. Sean Gelael Pertamina Arden 1:29.906
18. Roberto Merhi Campos Racing 1:30.085
19. Nabil Jeffri Trident 1:30.588
20. Gustav Malja Racing Engineering
*Car no.4 (Malja) all lap times deleted: car found underweight
Day 1 Afternoon results
1. Nyck De Vries Rapax 1:29.223
2. Antonio Fuoco PREMA Racing 1:29.601
3. Charles Leclerc PREMA Racing 1:29.602
4. Johnny Cecotto Rapax 1:29.847
5. Roberto Merhi Campos Racing 1:30.053
6. Jordan King MP Motorsport 1:30.127
7. Sergio Canamasas Trident 1:30.404
8. Nabil Jeffri Trident 1:30.518
9. Sean Gelael Pertamina Arden 1:30.680
10. Ralph Boschung Campos Racing 1:30.885
11. Gustav Malja Racing Engineering 1:32.932
12. Luca Ghiotto RUSSIAN TIME 1:33.557
13. Oliver Rowland DAMS 1:33.723
14. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:33.813
15. Louis Deletraz Racing Engineering 1:33.864
16. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:33.867
17. Alexander Albon ART Grand Prix 1:33.991
18. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:34.073
19. Norman Nato Pertamina Arden 1:34.466
20. Sergio Sette Camara MP Motorsport 1:34.887