F2: Piastri ahead of Doohan in opening session at Yas Marina

Oscar Piastri got his weekend off to the ideal start in Yas Marina, finishing fastest in the opening session of the final round. The Championship leader’s tour of 1:36.800 was enough to beat MP Motorsport’s Jack Doohan to P1, with ART Grand Prix’s Christian Lundgaard in third.

For the second round in a row, MP rookies Clément Novalak and Doohan were the first to complete a tour of the track, with the Frenchman setting the benchmark at 1:59.442.

Doohan topped the times at the end of the first run of flyers, as the field got a taste of the revamped Yas Marina Circuit. After momentarily falling to fourth, the Formula 3 vice-champion leapt back up to P1 at the end of the next round of laps, taking the quickest time down to 1:37.702, ahead of Marcus Armstrong and Ralph Boschung.

Lundgaard beat Piastri to P1 at the midway point by becoming the first driver to break the 1m 37s in Abu Dhabi, but the PREMA driver did manage to wrestle the position from the Dane on his next lap, going 0.005s quicker.

Improving track conditions were masking heavy tire wear and allowed Doohan to improve and return to the top spot with a 1:36.821, but the Red Bull junior wasn’t there for long as Piastri jumped back to P1, going 0.21s faster.

No one could unsettle the Alpine junior in the remaining 10 minutes, and he finished ahead of Doohan and Lundgaard. Boschung retained a spot amongst the front-runners in fourth, ahead of Novalak, who made it two rookies in the top five.

Jüri Vips beat Armstrong to sixth, with Bent Viscaal, Robert Shwartzman and Marino Sato completing the top 10.

Practice Results