Daruvala leads Shwartzman on Day 2 of Bahrain F2 testing

Having set the pace on the opening day of the test with a time of 1m41.848s, the Indian driver lowered the benchmark further on Wednesday to a 1m41.686s to lead Shwartzman and Carlin teammate Dan Ticktum.

It was Campos driver Ralph Boschung who held the top spot on the timesheets in the morning session, a 1m42.244s putting him just 0.027s clear of Daruvala.

But while Boschung failed to improve his time in the afternoon, Daruvala posted a 1m42.034s at the 90-minute mark to lead Ticktum’s best effort of 1m42.438s.

The two Carlin drivers remained at the head of the order until the final 10 minutes of the session when Shwartzman set the first sub-1m42s time of the day to snatch the top spot from Daruvala.

However, the Indian driver fired back in the dying minutes of Wednesday’s running, eclipsing the Prema’s driver time of 1m41.853s by 0.167s end the day the quickest of all.

Ticktum improved to a 1m42.050s late on to retake third, having been dislodged from the spot by the Hitech of Liam Lawson.

Lawson’s effort of 1m42.177s was good enough for fourth, while Boschung completed the top five with the time he had set in the first part of the day.

Marcus Armstrong was the lead DAMS driver in sixth, while UNI Virtuosi’s Felipe Drugovich edged out MP Motorsport’s Louis Deletraz by just 0.002s to take seventh.

David Beckmann was ninth after taking over the #11 Charouz car from Callum Ilott, this year’s runner-up with Virtuosi, as teammate Guilherme Samaia rounded out the top 10.

The afternoon running was interrupted by two separate red flags, both being shown in the final hour; HWA driver Matteo Nannini came to a stop at Turn 8 for the first, while 2020 Formula 3 runner-up Theo Pourchaire spun at the same corner later to bring out a second stoppage.

The post-season F2 test will conclude at the Bahrain International Circuit on Thursday, with another six hours of running split across two sessions.

Day 2 morning session results:

	DRIVER	TEAM	LAPTIME	LAPS
1	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1:42.244	33
2	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	1:42.271	43
3	Liam Lawson	Hitech Grand Prix	1:42.337	35
4	Jri Vips	Hitech Grand Prix	1:42.550	30
5	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	1:42.819	32
6	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	1:42.931	45
7	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	1:42.961	39
8	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	1:43.018	44
9	Roy Nissany	DAMS	1:43.082	36
10	Marino Sato	Trident	1:43.095	41
11	Logan Sargeant	Campos Racing	1:43.099	42
12	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	1:43.117	33
13	Clement Novalak	Trident	1:43.277	22
14	David Beckmann	Charouz Racing System	1:43.316	37
15	Louis Deletraz	MP Motorsport	1:43.464	41
16	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz Racing System	1:43.718	38
17	Matteo Nannini	BWT HWA RACELAB	1:43.855	28
18	Lirim Zendeli	MP Motorsport	1:44.650	44
19	Roberto Merhi	BWT HWA RACELAB	1:45.844	17
20	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	1:47.579	53
21	Oscar Piastri	PREMA Racing	1:48.139	46
22	Robert Shwartzman	PREMA Racing	2:03.206	31

Day 2 afternoon session results:

	DRIVER	TEAM	LAPTIME	LAPS
1	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	1:41.686	34
2	Robert Shwartzman	PREMA Racing	1:41.853	33
3	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	1:42.050	35
4	Liam Lawson	Hitech Grand Prix	1:42.177	39
5	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	1:42.281	42
6	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	1:42.373	29
7	Louis Deletraz	MP Motorsport	1:42.375	23
8	David Beckmann	Charouz Racing System	1:42.398	40
9	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz Racing System	1:42.415	38
10	Clement Novalak	Trident	1:42.467	47
11	Logan Sargeant	Campos Racing	1:42.512	36
12	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	1:42.629	47
13	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1:42.635	31
14	Juri Vips	Hitech Grand Prix	1:42.672	39
15	Oscar Piastri	PREMA Racing	1:42.719	33
16	Marino Sato	Trident	1:42.869	53
17	Roy Nissany	DAMS	1:42.876	30
18	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	1:42.888	41
19	Lirim Zendeli	MP Motorsport	1:43.068	18
20	Matteo Nannini	BWT HWA RACELAB	1:43.744	25
21	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	1:44.519	35
22	Roberto Merhi	BWT HWA RACELAB	1:44.981	19