Mercedes protege Gunther fastest as F2 testing ends

The Mercedes-backed F3 graduate recorded a time of 1m42.756s, dipping two-hundredths below the benchmark set by Trident’s Arjun Maini on Thursday.

Gunther’s effort came during the opening hour of running, with attention thereafter switching to race preparations in the form of long runs and pitstop practice.

Charouz Racing System’s Louis Deletraz emerged as Gunther’s closest rival, winding up 0.302s behind the German.

Mercedes-backed George Russell beat Renault reserve and ART Grand Prix teammate Jack Aitken to third, the latter causing one of three red flags when he stopped at Turn 8.

Sergio Sette Camara (Carlin) took fifth, in front of Russian Time’s Honda protege Tadasuke Makino and Maini, who jostled with Gunther for top spot before eventually slipping to seventh.

Luca Ghiotto classified in eighth spot for Campos, ahead of DAMS driver Alexander Albon, as Nirei Fukuzumi put in a late surge to round out the top 10, in front of Antonio Fuoco and Lando Norris.

Last year’s runner-up Artem Markelov and Ralph Boschung were the culprits of the other red flags, en route to 13th and 15th respectively.

Prema, which has guided Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc to the last two drivers’ titles, had a low-key display, with Nyck de Vries its lead representative in 16th.

Roy Nissany and Roberto Merhi were 18th and 20th as they again ran for Campos and MP Motorsport – the only teams yet to finalise their 2018 line-ups.

The series’ opening round will take place at the same venue in two weeks’ time on the support bill for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Testing times:

Pos.	Driver	Team	Morning	Afternoon
1	Maximilian Gunther	Arden	1'42.756	1'44.155
2	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	1'43.058	1'49.013
3	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	1'43.109	1'47.860
4	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	1'43.143	1'48.600
5	Sergio Sette Camara	Carlin	1'43.149	1'45.310
6	Tadasuke Makino	RUSSIAN TIME	1'43.209	1'47.239
7	Arjun Maini	Trident	1'43.254	1'49.327
8	Luca Ghiotto	Campos Racing	1'43.266	1'48.759
9	Alexander Albon	DAMS	1'43.388	1'48.110
10	Nirei Fukuzumi	Arden	1'44.778	1'43.420
11	Antonio Fuoco	Charouz Racing System	1'43.474	1'44.512
12	Lando Norris	Carlin	1'43.490	1'46.937
13	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	1'43.682	1'46.895
14	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	1'43.715	1'48.776
15	Ralph Boschung	MP Motorsport	1'43.828	1'48.412
16	Nyck de Vries	Prema Racing	1'43.876	1'48.857
17	Santino Ferrucci	Trident	1'43.890	1'48.454
18	Roy Nissany	Campos Racing	1'43.975	1'48.469
19	Sean Gelael	Prema Racing	1'44.051	1'47.419
20	Roberto Merhi	MP Motorsport	1'44.625	1'46.908