Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia
Practice report

Baku F2: Ghiotto leads Matsushita in practice

Formula 2 points leader Luca Ghiotto set the fastest time in Friday's practice session in Baku, unseating Honda protege Nobuharu Matsushita late on.

Luca Ghiotto, UNI VIRTUOSI

Luca Ghiotto, UNI VIRTUOSI

Joe Portlock / Motorsport Images

Times tumbled throughout the session, which was the first on-track action of the weekend in Baku, with large amounts of dust and rubbish such as plastic bags and bottles being kicked up throughout the session.

As times really started to improve in the last 20 minutes, Carlin’s Matsushita and DAMS driver Sergio Sette Camara set exactly the same time, before Virtuosi's Ghiotto stormed through and took a second out of both to head the order.

With five minutes to go, Matsushita went quickest again at a track where he was fast in his last stint in F2 by setting a 1m56.919s.

But then Ghiotto stormed to the fastest time of 1m56.637s as he took the chequered flag, 0.282s up on the opposition.

Jordan King, who is contesting the Indy 500 next month, set the third-best time for MP Motorsport, ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Nyck de Vries and the second DAMS car of Nicholas Latifi.

Ferrari junior Mick Schumacher (Prema) delivered a late flyer to set the sixth-fastest time ahead of Callum Ilott, whose opening weekend was ruined by a qualifying crash in Bahrain.

Sette Camara, Ilott’s Sauber Junior Team partner Juan Manuel Correa and the second Prema of Sean Gelael rounded out the top 10.

Mahaveer Raghunathan (MP) will be forced to start Saturday's race from the pitlane after failing to stop for the weighbridge at the end of practice.

Practice results:

Pos. Driver Team Time Gap
1 Luca Ghiotto UNI-Virtuosi 1m56.637s -
2 Nobuharu Matsushita Carlin 1m56.919s 0.282s
3 Jordan King MP Motorsport 1m57.023s 0.386s
4 Nyck de Vries ART Grand Prix 1m57.441s 0.804s
5 Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1m57.446s 0.809s
6 Mick Schumacher Prema Racing 1m57.576s 0.939s
7 Callum Ilott Sauber Junior Team by Charouz 1m57.887s 1.250s
8 Sergio Sette Camara DAMS 1m58.029s 1.392s
9 Juan Manuel Correa Sauber Junior Team by Charouz 1m58.273s 1.636s
10 Sean Gelael Prema Racing 1m58.377s 1.740s
11 Jack Aitken Campos Racing 1m58.647s 2.010s
12 Louis Deletraz Carlin 1m58.685s 2.048s
13 Ralph Boschung Trident 1m59.010s 2.373s
14 Nikita Mazepin ART Grand Prix 1m59.699s 3.062s
15 Guanyu Zhou UNI-Virtuosi 1m59.753s 3.116s
16 Anthoine Hubert BWT Arden 1m59.801s 3.164s
17 Giuliano Alesi Trident 1m59.994s 3.357s
18 Tatiana Calderon BWT Arden 2m01.994s 5.357s
19 Dorian Boccolacci Campos Racing 2m02.474s 5.837s
20 Mahaveer Raghunathan MP Motorsport 2m09.848s 13.211s

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Haas signs Deletraz as F1 simulator driver
Next article Baku F2: Matsushita dominates red-flagged qualifying

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia