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Practice report

Bahrain F2: Maini tops first practice of 2018

Haas Formula 1 junior Arjun Maini beat Lando Norris by 0.051s in the practice session for the Formula 2 season opener in Bahrain.

Arjun Maini, Trident

Arjun Maini, Trident

FIA Formula 2

Trident driver Maini missed the first half of the session, but was fifth after his first flying lap and subsequently jumped into the lead with 16 minutes left on the clock.

He beat Norris by 0.051s, the McLaren junior leading a Carlin 1-2 before he was demoted by Maini.

Norris's teammate Sergio Sette Camara still ended up third, just over a tenth of a second adrift Maini.

DAMS driver Alex Albon, who is only confirmed to race in Bahrain for now, was fourth, closely followed by reigning GP3 champion George Russell (ART Grand Prix).

Artem Markelov (Russian Time) was another driver not to have a representative laptime in the first half of the session, but a late improvement promoted the 2017 runner-up move to sixth.

Ex-F1 driver Roberto Merhi was seventh for MP Motorsport, narrowly beating F3 graduate Maximilian Gunther (Arden) and Antonio Fuoco (Charouz), who went off track on a couple of occasions.

The top 10 was completed by Sean Gelael, who was the faster of the two Prema drivers as Nyck de Vries was only 13th.

FP1 results

Pos. Driver Team Time Gap
 Arjun Maini Trident 1'44.549  
 Lando Norris Carlin 1'44.600 0.051
 Sergio Sette Camara Carlin 1'44.653 0.104
 Alexander Albon DAMS 1'44.769 0.220
 George Russell ART Grand Prix 1'44.812 0.263
 Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1'44.861 0.312
 Roberto Merhi MP Motorsport 1'45.005 0.456
 Maximilian Gunther BWT Arden 1'45.010 0.461
 Antonio Fuoco Charouz Racing System 1'45.080 0.531
10   Sean Gelael Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing 1'45.214 0.665
11   Jack Aitken ART Grand Prix 1'45.268 0.719
12   Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1'45.291 0.742
13   Nyck de Vries Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing 1'45.329 0.780
14   Tadasuke Makino RUSSIAN TIME 1'45.331 0.782
15   Luca Ghiotto Campos Vexatec Racing 1'45.344 0.795
16   Santino Ferrucci Trident 1'45.419 0.870
17   Ralph Boschung MP Motorsport 1'45.564 1.015
18   Nirei Fukuzumi BWT Arden 1'45.849 1.300
19   Louis Deletraz Charouz Racing System 1'45.958 1.409
20   Roy Nissany Campos Vexatec Racing 1'46.407 1.858

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