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De Vries claims final day of Bahrain test

Dutchman leads the way on day three

By Franck Drui

31 March 2017 - 15:20

Nyck De Vries has set the pace on the final day of the FIA Formula 2 test at the Bahrain International Circuit, grabbing the top spot in both sessions as he denied his rivals twice over, with a time of 1:40.583, just seven thousands ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita and Oliver Rowland, in the morning session, and with an afternoon time of 1:41.880, ahead of Rapax teammate Johnny Cecotto and Norman Nato.

The morning session opened under overcast conditions and slightly cooler temperatures than seen for the last two days, with De Vries clearly enjoying the elements as he set the early pace. The PREMA pair of Charles Leclerc and Antonio Fuoco soon took over on top, with the Italian the first to drop below 1:41.

At the one hour mark yesterday’s quickest driver Nicholas Latifi grabbed the top spot, but teammate Oliver Rowland had his eye on the prize: the Briton dethroned the Canadian by just eight hundredths, with Matsushita soon splitting the DAMS pair, indicating the fine margins between the teams, but with just over a half an hour remaining De Vries stole past them all, grabbing P1 by just 0.007s.

Following a one hour break the pitlane was green again, with de Vries the first man on track as he looked to resume hostilities. Artem Markelov topped the timesheets in the opening stages before the Pertamina Arden of Sean Gelael and Nato took over, but on the one hour mark Cecotto went top, ahead of De Vries and Nato.

The Dutchman bided his time before striking in the final hour, again grabbing the top spot with Nato closing in to P2, but Cecotto reclaimed the position just before the chequered flag to hand his Rapax team a 1-2 in the final session before the opening round of the FIA Formula 2 Championship, to be run in Bahrain in just 2 weeks’ time, on 14-16 April.

Morning results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Nyck de Vries	Rapax	1:40.583	27
2.	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	1:40.590	16
3.	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1:40.618	18
4.	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	1:40.679	12
5.	Antonio Fuoco	PREMA Racing	1:40.780	22
6.	Alexander Albon	ART Grand Prix	1:40.844	17
7.	Charles Leclerc	PREMA Racing	1:40.916	33
8.	Norman Nato	Pertamina Arden	1:41.180	37
9.	Sean Gelael	Pertamina Arden	1:41.181	35
10.	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	1:41.197	23
11.	Luca Ghiotto	RUSSIAN TIME	1:41.211	26
12.	Louis Deletraz	Racing Engineering	1:41.281	21
13.	Sergio Sette Camara	MP Motorsport	1:41.329	13
14.	Johnny Cecotto	Rapax	1:41.448	30
15.	Gustav Malja	Racing Engineering	1:41.592	17
16.	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1:41.602	32
17.	Sergio Canamasas	Trident	1:41.960	24
18.	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	1:42.359	32
19.	Nabil Jeffri	Trident	1:42.580	25
20.	Jordan King	MP Motorsport	1:45.862	29

Afternoon results

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Nyck de Vries	Rapax	1:41.888	40
2.	Johnny Cecotto	Rapax	1:41.914	22
3.	Norman Nato	Pertamina Arden	1:42.807	42
4.	Nabil Jeffri	Trident	1:43.821	36
5.	Sergio Sette Camara	MP Motorsport	1:44.042	34
6.	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	1:44.923	42
7.	Jordan King	MP Motorsport	1:45.007	32
8.	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	1:45.111	43
9.	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1:45.265	31
10.	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	1:45.354	43
11.	Antonio Fuoco	PREMA Racing	1:45.436	37
12.	Luca Ghiotto	RUSSIAN TIME	1:45.656	31
13.	Alexander Albon	ART Grand Prix	1:45.754	51
14.	Sean Gelael	Pertamina Arden	1:45.841	36
15.	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1:46.061	53
16.	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	1:46.072	28
17.	Louis Delétraz	Racing Engineering	1:46.314	39
18.	Gustav Malja	Racing Engineering	1:46.539	45
19.	Charles Leclerc	PREMA Racing	1:46.925	35
20.	Sergio Canamasas	Trident	1:47.261	31