Carlin Commands Final F2 Practice

The Carlin duo topped the timing sheets in the final Formula 2 practice session of the season.

Yuki Tsunoda led his team mate Jehan Daruvala by just over two tenths, ahead of the Hitech of Luca Ghiotto in third.

The season finale sees the grid return to Bahrain, with five drivers still in title contention. However, the track is much different to what the drivers are used to, with the Bahrain outer loop providing a high speed challenge.

After their first run, Felipe Drugovich led the way with a 1:03.609, just ahead of Tsunoda and Ghiotto.

The MP Motorsport driver will be looking to build on his dominant victory in last weekend’s Feature Race.

The drivers had to contend with an incredibly bumpy track surface around Turn 5 to Turn 8.

This could be something to watch out for heading into Qualifying as the drivers will attempt to back each other up to gain track position.

The Carlins then led the pack with Tsunoda setting the pace with a 1:03.267 ahead of Daruvala and Ghiotto.

With four minutes to go, the session was red flagged after Artem Markelov’s engine dramatically went up in smoke along the pit straight.

It will have to be a quick turnaround from the HWA team with Qualifying only a couple of hours away.

The final Practice session of the season did not restart and Tsunoda, Daruvala and Ghiotto remained at the top of the timing sheets.

Drugovich finished the session in fourth with the recently announced Haas driver for 2021, Nikita Mazepin, in fifth.

Marcus Armstrong closed the session in sixth, whilst Championship leader Mick Schumacher was in seventh and will be looking to earn his first pole position of the season.

The UNI-Virtuosi of Guanyu Zhou ended the session in eighth, ahead of Charouz driver, Louis Delétraz, and Robert Shwartzman in the second PREMA.

Dan Ticktum finished in 11th, with the ART of Christian Lundgaard in 12th.

As Jack Aitken was called up by Williams for the Formula 1 race this weekend, Ralph Boschung stepped into the Campos ahead of his full-time return to the team for 2021. 

He ended the session in 13th, just ahead of Theo Pourchaire on his second weekend in Formula 2, and Sean Gelael in 15th.

Pedro Piquet closed the session in 16th with Roy Nissany in 17th.

Callum Ilott will be hoping he can improve in Qualifying with the British driver being 14 points behind in the Drivers’ Championship. The Ferrari Academy driver could only manage 18th on the timing sheets.

Marino Sato finished 19th with Markelov in 20th after his engine went up in smoke to end the session prematurely.

Guilherme Samaia and Giuliano Alesi rounded out the timing sheets in 21st and 22nd.

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 *Image Credit: (C) Formula Motorsport Limited