Ghiotto tops F2 pre-season testing

Luca Ghiotto

Rookies may have ruled days one and two of pre-season testing, but it was experience which took the plaudits on the final day, as Luca Ghiotto claimed the fastest time overall. The Hitech Grand Prix racer beat out Felipe Drugovich and Jack Aitken for top spot, ahead of the new season.

Jehan Daruvala picked up from where he left off on the final day, beginning the session at the top of the timesheets, touring around the increasingly warm track at 1:43.428. Giuliano Alesi and Yuki Tsunoda were the men closest to the Indian.

The morning was heavily focused on long-runs and race simulations ahead of the season opener here later this month, with the majority of drivers all posting upwards of 30 laps.

The leaderboard wouldn’t change as the penultimate session came to a close. Daruvala finished on top with the time he set early on in the morning. Alesi and Tsunoda followed behind him in the order, with Artem Markelov and Louis Deletraz completing the top five.

With the sun beginning to set on the Sakhir desert, the drivers fed back onto the circuit for the final session and Robert Shwartzman immediately posted the fastest time of the day, to take an early lead with 1:43.028.

The Russian was pipped by his teammate just moments later, as Mick Schumacher took us below 1m 42s for the first time on Day 3. This sparked a two-way battled between the duo to go fastest, with Shwartzman briefly usurping the German, before Schumacher once again went top.

2019 race winners Ghiotto and Aitken had shown sparks of quality throughout testing but were yet to truly dominate. At the halfway mark, the duo punched in quick times to take P1 and P2 in the standings, with the Italian setting the fastest time overall in
testing.

Rookie Drugovich nipped in-between the two of them to take second fastest, with Schumacher and Nobuharu Matsushita taking fourth and fifth. Nikita Mazepin, Shwartzman, Deletraz, Sean Gelael and Callum Ilott completed the top ten.

The next time we hit the track will be for the opening race of the 2020 campaign here in Bahrain. With two new faces and one returning favorite topping the times across the three days, the season is set to be as competitive and as compelling as ever.

AM Times

POS	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	LAPS
1	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech Grand Prix	1:43.825	19
2	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech Grand Prix	1:43.830	29
3	Artem Markelov	BWT HWA RACELAB	1:43.882	23
4	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	1:43.978	31
5	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	1:43.986	36
6	Giuliano Alesi	BWT HWA RACELAB	1:44.987	32
7	Marino Sato	Trident	1:45.251	37
8	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi	1:45.578	29
9	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	1:45.636	29
10	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing	1:45.867	28
11	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	1:46.997	39
12	Mick Schumacher	PREMA Racing	1:47.231	38
13	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	1:47.242	41
14	Nobuharu Matsushita	MP Motorsport	1:47.573	37
15	Sean Gelael	DAMS	1:47.590	43
16	Sergey Sirotkin	ART Grand Prix	1:47.601	33
17	Robert Shwartzman	PREMA Racing	1:48.003	38
18	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	1:48.036	37
19	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	1:48.852	42
20	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	1:48.857	45
21	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	1:48.938	45
22	Roy Nissany	Trident	1:49.207	35

PM Times

POS	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	LAPS
1	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech Grand Prix	1:41.252	31
2	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	1:41.324	27
3	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	1:41.568	30
4	Mick Schumacher	PREMA Racing	1:41.611	31
5	Nobuharu Matsushita	MP Motorsport	1:41.612	26
6	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech Grand Prix	1:41.634	29
7	Robert Shwartzman	PREMA Racing	1:41.655	33
8	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	1:41.864	18
9	Sean Gelael	DAMS	1:41.911	27
10	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi	1:41.943	29
11	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	1:42.097	20
12	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	1:42.140	27
13	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing	1:42.399	36
14	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	1:42.448	36
15	Roy Nissany	Trident	1:42.878	20
16	Marino Sato	Trident	1:43.922	15
17	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	1:44.496	32
18	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	1:44.653	31
19	Sergey Sirotkin	ART Grand Prix	1:44.679	23
20	Artem Markelov	BWT HWA RACELAB	1:45.552	40
21	Giuliano Alesi	BWT HWA RACELAB	1:45.675	46
22	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	1:48.577	3