Jerez tests, Day 2: De Vries still fastest on Day 2 of testing

Nyck de Vries has topped again the timesheet on Day 2 of the 2019 FIA Formula 2 pre-season testing at Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. The Dutchman set a latpime of 1:24.723 in the opening hour of the morning session to head UNI Virtuosi’s pair Luca Ghiotto and Guanyu Zhou.

The session opened under blue skies with Trident’s Giuliano Alesi feeding onto the track first closely followed by Antonio Fuoco who replaced Ralph Boschung at the wheel of the second Trident car. De Vries set the early pace with a laptime two tenths quicker than Louis Delétraz’ in P2.

The ART Grand Prix driver went even quicker on his next lap to break the 1m25s barrier with a time of 1:24.723. Ghiotto also improved but ended with a time half a second slower than de Vries’. Sérgio Sette Camâra then dipped under 1m25s as well to move up into second.

On the one hour mark, the top 3 was made of de Vries, Ghiotto and Mick Schumacher - all in the 1m24s, but Zhou was also able to improve on his personal best to feature in third.

Halfway through the session, the proceedings were halted for a track inspection. The running was restarted fifteen minutes later, but stopped again after ten minutes when Nicholas Latifi brought out the second red flag of the morning after going off track at Turn 8.

The remaining of the session was trouble-free with the drivers concentrating on long runs. Five minutes before the end, Ghiotto went wide at Turn 8 and touched the barrier. A third and final red flag was waved. The cars returned to the pits and the pitlane remained closed until the chequered flag. Behind de Vries, Ghiotto and Zhou, Delétraz took fourth ahead of Schumacher, Latifi, Sette Camâra, Calum Ilott, Juan Manuel Correa and Verschoor.

The Dutchman from MP Motorsport was the first driver back onto the track after the two-hour lunch break, but it was Ilott who set the early pace in a 1:25.671 to lead teammate Correa and Anthoine Hubert. Fuoco eventually slotted in third and the top 3 remained unchanged for the majority of the afternoon session where the teams and drivers’ programmes were focused on race runs.

Past the midway point, Hubert went wide at Turn 4 and stopped in the gravel bed which brought out the first red flag of the afternoon. The proceedings were halted a second time in the final hour after Ilott span and stopped at Turn 1 following small contact.

At the re-start, Dorian Boccolacci put his head down and clocked in a laptime of 1:25.493 and claimed the top spot. Alesi also found some extra pace in the dying minutes to move up to P2. Ilott completed the top 3 ahead of Renault F1’s test driver Jack Aitken, Correa, Fuoco, Verschoor, Hubert, Tatiana Caldéron (the champion of most laps completed this afternoon – 55) and Zhou.

The final day of testing at Jerez will open tomorrow at 9.00am local time.