Haas Formula 1 development driver Arjun Maini set the pace on the second day of the final Formula 2 pre-season test in Bahrain.
With all 10 teams carrying out race simulation work during the afternoon running, the fastest times of the day all came during the three hour morning session.
Trident’s Maini was the only driver to dip below the 1m43s barrier, toppling Charouz Racing System’s Louis Deletraz off of top spot with a 1m42.779s benchmark set less than an hour into the session.
ART Grand Prix’s Jack Aitken was the driver closest to matching Maini. Aitken finished second on the timesheet, 0.224 seconds adrift of first. The Brit also notched the highest lap total of any driver during the day with 86 completed.
Third on the timesheet was McLaren F1 junior Nyck de Vries. The Dutchman topped Wednesday’s session. In fourth was Luca Ghiotto for Campos.
Having initially been knocked off top spot by Maini, Deletraz slipped to an eventual fifth place.
Reigning GP3 champion George Russell finished sixth for ART. Russell’s 84 lap total for the day ensured that ART completed the most mileage of any team on Thursday.
Having headed the timesheet on two days during the previous Paul Ricard test, Lando Norris ended the day seventh for Carlin. The Arden International duo of Maximilian Gunther and Nirei Fukuzumi finished in eighth and 10th respectively, split by Russian Time rookie Tadsuke Makino.
His team-mate Artem Markelov was the first driver to stop on-track during the morning. He finished 15th.
DAMS was anonymous for much of the day. Nicholas Latifi finished 12th on his second day in the car this year having missed the first test due to illness. Alexander Albon stopped in the pitlane entry early on and finished 19th.
Santino Ferrucci, who finished 17th on the overall timesheet, was fastest in the afternoon session. Despite finishing bottom of the timesheet in the morning Campos’ Ralph Boschung was second in the afternoon, toppled from top spot by Ferrucci late-on.
