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
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 |
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