De Vries tops opening day of Bahrain F2 testing

F2 has gathered at Sakhir for three days of running with the new F2/18 before next month’s opening round at the circuit in support of Formula 1.

Prema driver de Vries clocked a time of 1m43.785s during the afternoon running in warm and sunny conditions to finish 0.170 seconds clear of Charouz’s Louis Deletraz.

Luca Ghiotto led the way during the morning session and his time proved quick enough to place third overall for Campos.

F3 champion Lando Norris, who bagged the fastest time of the Paul Ricard test, took fourth, 0.009s behind Ghiotto.

Arjun Maini finished fifth, the Haas development driver preparing for his first season in Formula 2 with Trident, while Ferrari protege Antonio Fuoco claimed sixth spot for new team Charouz.

Ralph Boschung (MP Motorsport), Maximilian Gunther (Arden), Sergio Sette Camara (Carlin) and Jack Aitken (ART Grand Prix) rounded out the top 10.

Mercedes F1 reserve George Russell finished half a tenth behind teammate Aitken in 11th, with last year’s runner-up Artem Markelov 13th for Russian Time.

Roberto Merhi and Roy Nissany tested once more for MP Motorsport and Campos respectively, with the teams still yet to confirm their line-ups, and classified 16th and 19th.

Nicholas Latifi finished at the foot of the 20-driver timesheets as he returned to action for DAMS after missing the first test through illness.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Morning	Afternoon
1	Nyck de Vries	Prema	1'44.944	1'43.785
2	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	1'44.549	1'43.955
3	Luca Ghiotto	Campos Racing	1'44.042	1'44.051
4	Lando Norris	Carlin	1'45.087	1'44.051
5	Arjun Maini	Trident	1'44.919	1'44.115
6	Antonio Fuoco	Charouz Racing System	1'44.435	1'44.202
7	Ralph Boschung	MP Motorsport	1'45.214	1'44.327
8	Maximilian Gunther	BWT Arden	1'44.603	1'44.410
9	Sergio Sette Camara	Carlin	1'45.225	1'44.444
10	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	2'28.722	1'44.448
11	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	2'20.779	1'44.505
12	Tadasuke Makino	RUSSIAN TIME	1'45.369	1'44.637
13	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	1'44.657	1'44.644
14	Sean Gelael	Prema	1'45.920	1'44.683
15	Nirei Fukuzumi	BWT Arden	1'44.711	1'49.230
16	Roberto Merhi	MP Motorsport	1'45.800	1'44.806
17	Santino Ferrucci	Trident	1'45.935	1'44.820
18	Alexander Albon	DAMS	1'44.868	1'46.217
19	Roy Nissany	Campos Racing	1'45.022	1'45.923
20	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	1'45.600	1'45.893