Oliver Rowland was the fastest man on track in the first ever free practice session of the new FIA Formula 2 championship. The DAMS driver lapped the Sakhir International Circuit in a time of 1m42.221s, ahead of Artem Markelov and rookie Charles Leclerc.
As soon as the lights went green, all drivers headed out onto the track to do their installation laps in the scorching desert heat of Bahrain. The first representative lap time of the day was set by Louis Deletraz with 1m44.016s. Jordan King, Nicholas Latifi, Gustav Malja, and Johnny Cecotto Jr all jumped ahead of the Swiss just afterwards, being the first men dip under 1m44s.
The lap times tumbled down further and it was now Rowland’s time to shine: The British driver set the fastest lap time of the day, 1n42.221s, with about 34 minutes left to run. Markelov and Antonio Fuoco slotted into second and third place, respectively. Two minutes later Charles Leclerc put himself into the spot light. The Monegasque rookie had been the last one to exit the pit lane after the installation laps and, with some drivers already returning to the pits after their fast laps, found a gap in the traffic to put himself into third place.
Halfway into the session most drivers had returned into the pits for analysis and new tyres. Sergio Sette Camara stalled in the pit lane exit but was able to continue, and Nyck de Vries also encountered technical problems as well. The Dutchman however was unlucky: his car stalled twice in the pitlane where the Rapax mechanics were able to restart the car both times. The third time however de Vries was left stranded on the track and had to abandon the session. The virtual safety car was deployed to recover the Rapax car.
The session was restarted with only five minutes left to run, and while all drivers left the pits again to squeeze in another lap, the times at the top remained unchanged. At the checkered flag it was still Rowland in first place ahead of Markelov and Leclerc. Fuoco was the fourth-fastest man ahead of Norman Nato and Luca Ghiotto. Cecotto finished the session in eighth place ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita and Malja.
The F2 qualifying session will take place in the evening at 20:00 local time (GMT+3).
