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F2 - Norman Nato grabs Day 3 honours

15.03.17

F2 - 2017 Pre-season testing Day 3 - Barcelona

FIA, Motorsport, Mobility, Road Safety, F1, WRC, WEC, WTCC, World RX

Norman Nato set the fastest time of the 3 day FIA Formula 2 Championship test when he topped this morning’s penultimate session in Barcelona, setting a qualifying style lap of 1:27.834 to take home the first pre-season bragging rights ahead of Oliver Rowland (0.054) and Alexander Albon (0.105). In the final session of the test, Luca Ghiotto stopped the clocks at 1:29.565 to top the afternoon ahead of Johnny Cecotto (0.262) and Nyck De Vries (0.426).

The day commenced under gloriously sunny conditions, and the teams wasted no time in getting their charges on track: niggles for Nato, Rowland and Nyck De Vries saw the trio stop on track, bringing out the red flags, but when the track went green the drivers all had at least one eye on qualifying later in the year: De Vries set the early pace from Charles Leclerc and Albon, with the Thai driver briefly grabbing the top spot before Nato annexed it at the halfway mark in the session, setting a target that could not be reached by his rivals, despite their best efforts, before turning their attentions to longer runs.

The afternoon session is traditionally slower than the morning in Barcelona, and so it proved once again: with most of the field again concentrated on long runs, Ghiotto set a quick lap at the 30 minute mark before following suit. But the pace picked up in the final 10 minutes, with Cecotto pushing up to P2 just ahead of Nyck De Vries as the clock wound down to zero.

With little in the way of unreliability affecting the grid, the teams will analyse their data before turning their attention to the next pre-season test, which will run for 3 days in Bahrain from 29-31 March.

Day 3 Morning results

 

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Norman Nato

Pertamina Arden

1:27.834

30

2.

Oliver Rowland

DAMS

1:27.888

24

3.

Alexander Albon

ART Grand Prix

1:27.939

30

4.

Nyck De Vries

Rapax

1:28.103

32

5.

Luca Ghiotto

RUSSIAN TIME

1:28.177

30

6.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

1:28.245

44

7.

Sean Gelael

Pertamina Arden

1:28.385

44

8.

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:28.391

24

9.

Charles Leclerc

PREMA Racing

1:28.421

32

10.

Antonio Fuoco

PREMA Racing

1:28.649

30

11.

Sergio Sette Camara

MP Motorsport

1:28.661

28

12.

Ralph Boschung

Campos Racing

1:28.673

40

13.

Johnny Cecotto

Rapax

1:28.692

21

14.

Louis Delétraz

Racing Engineering

1:28.811

33

15.

Jordan King

MP Motorsport

1:28.816

18

16.

Gustav Malja

Racing Engineering

1:28.837

27

17.

Sergio Canamasas

Trident

1:28.859

25

18.

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

1:28.901

26

19.

Roberto Merhi

Campos Racing

1:29.486

23

20.

Nabil Jeffri

Trident

1:29.643

23


Day 3 Afternoon results

 

Driver

Team

Laptime

Laps

1.

Luca Ghiotto

RUSSIAN TIME

1:29.565

40

2.

Johnny Cecotto

Rapax

1:29.827

24

3.

Nyck De Vries

Rapax

1:29.991

30

4.

Roberto Merhi

Campos Racing

1:31.057

26

5.

Sergio Canamasas

Trident

1:31.149

30

6.

Ralph Boschung

Campos Racing

1:31.706

41

7.

Antonio Fuoco

PREMA Racing

1:32.499

47

8.

Oliver Rowland

DAMS

1:32.709

45

9.

Norman Nato

Pertamina Arden

1:33.050

49

10.

Louis Delétraz

Racing Engineering

1:33.123

54

11.

Gustav Malja

Racing Engineering

1:33.293

42

12.

Alexander Albon

ART Grand Prix

1:33.363

53

13.

Nobuharu Matsushita

ART Grand Prix

1:33.595

50

14.

Jordan King

MP Motorsport

1:33.926

36

15.

Artem Markelov

RUSSIAN TIME

1:33.947

38

16.

Charles Leclerc

PREMA Racing

1:33.956

49

17.

Sean Gelael

Pertamina Arden

1:34.427

38

18.

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:34.713

50

19.

Nabil Jeffri

Trident

1:34.846

32

20.

Sergio Sette Camara

MP Motorsport

1:35.078

38