FORMULA 2
 Credit: Alex Capparos Alpine Academy star and Italian Gabriele Mini finished the second day of Formula 2 pre-season testing, in Barcelona, fastest on Tuesday. Mini delivered a strong performance once again in pre-season testing, following on from a second place finish in the opening day, to finish top of the second day, for his team Prema Racing. A 1:23.660 was the time from Mini that saw him stand at the top of the times, in the overall classification, at the end of the pre-season testing's second day. ART driver Ritomo Miyata would be within a tenth of Mini, but would have to settle for second, ahead of Hitech's Luke Browning in third. This day of testing at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya would just be the second day that the 2025 FIA Formula 2 teams and drivers would get to have on-track action, as they build towards the full championship season. How Day 2 of Formula 2 pre-season testing unfolded in BarcelonaFollowing a disrupted opening day of pre-season testing in Barcelona, at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya, the FIA Formula 2 Championship would return to action for the second day. It was a day that saw the morning session heavily disturbed by fog, while across the day there was many red flag stoppages, which ultimately brought a halt to any momentum or flow the session was trying to have. At the end of Day 1, Campos Racing's new man Arvid Lindblad would set the fastest time overall, with his lap time coming in the afternoon. A 1:24.415 would be time of the Red Bull junior driver, as he beat Prema rookie Gabriele Mini by a tenth.
Tuesday morning would roll around, and it would be time for the opening session of the day, and it would be the session to end the first half of running in the 2025 Formula 2 pre-season testing. Three hours of testing would begin with the green light on at the end of the pit lane, with drivers hoping for less disruption across Day 2, in comparison to Day 1's morning session, which was hampered due to fog. In the first 15 minutes of the session, MP Motorsport's Richard Verschoor would have the time at the top of the time sheets with a provisional session best of 1:26.304. The Dutchman's time would be two tenths clear of Dino Beganovic of Hitech. 12 of the 22 drivers would have flying lap times after the first 15 minutes and as time would tick down to one hour complete, there had been 20 drivers of the 22-driver field with lap times set. Despite the driver's hoping for a clean run throughout the session, the first hour of the session would see two red flags, with the first hour being ended by the second of these red flags. First up would be Trident's Max Esterson, while just prior to the one hour mark, Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti would be the second. In terms of lap times, Prema's Gabriele Mini would go to the top of the times with a 1:23.709, a time comprehensively faster than the rest of the field. Mini would be eight tenths shy of Richard Verschoor in second. Both MP Motorsport drivers would be in the top three, as Verschoor's teammate Oliver Goethe was third. The next hour, once the session would be back underway, would see a vast improvement from the majority of the field but also more stoppages with additional red flags being waved. One in particular would be for Arvid Lindblad, who found difficulty after being fastest on the opening day. As for the lap times, Mini would be remaining as the driver being top of the times. A 1:23.660 would see Mini top by seven hundredths of a second to ART Grand Prix's Ritomo Miyata, who was in second place. Hitech TGR's Luke Browning was sat third. Victor Martins in the other ART and Joshua Durksen in the AIX would complete the top five. There would be no change to the top five as in the final hour, there were an additional two red flags that would pause the session and bring track action to a halt, despite the clock continuing to count down. The two responsible would be DAMS Lucas Oil's Jak Crawford and the reigning Formula 3 Champion, at Invicta Racing, Leonardo Fornaroli. Arvid Lindblad was sixth for Campos, ahead of Irish Rodin driver Alex Dunne, with Lindblad's teammate Pepe Marti finishing eighth for the morning session. Sebastian Montoya was ninth in the second Prema, while completing the top 10 was Richard Verschoor of MP Motorsport. The drivers and teams would break before the afternoon session for lunch, as pre-season testing had reached the halfway point for the 2025 FIA Formula 2 Championship.
After a lunch break where team and drivers could get some vital food and drink on board, it would be time to complete the pre-season testing action, for Day 2, as attention turned to the afternoon session. It had been a busy morning for the teams and drivers, but it would be a session that would see heavy disruption. Despite that, Prema's Gabriele Mini would be the driver to beat with the 1:23.660 he set in the morning running. To commence the afternoon running, the green light would be on at the end of the pit lane, signalling the start of the session and the three hours that would be crucial for experience and data gathering for the drivers and engineers respectively. In the first half an hour of proceedings, it would be the the MP Motorsport driver of Oliver Goethe, who would go to the top of the time sheets, with MP Motorsport sitting 1-2 with Goethe setting a 1:24.372. Verschoor behind him would be 0.130 back on his lesser experienced teammate as Max Esterson would be a provisional third for Trident. There would be a lot of lap times being set throughout the first half of the session and the time by Goethe would remain unchanged at the top of the time sheets, as the pace from the morning session, was struggling to surface in the afternoon session in Barcelona. The two MP Motorsport drivers had been split by the Hitech of Swedish rookie Dino Beganovic. The Ferrari Academy driver set a 1:24.424, which would be within a tenth of Oliver Goethe and within a tenth also of Verschoor, who dropped to third. Trident were having a strong session with both of their drivers being sat in the top five. However, Esterson would be bumped down to fifth, as his fellow rookie teammate, Sami Meguetounif would move up to fourth. Goethe, Beganovic and Verschoor would be unchallenged as the top three, with less than an hour remaining of the afternoon session, with only fourth and fifth changing from the top five since the halfway point. Invicta Racing's Roman Stanek would go fourth fastest, ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing's Mexican talent Rafael Villagomez. All drivers would set lap times throughout the session, however, many of them would be short of the pace laid down in the morning session. Goethe's time of 1:24.372 would be looking unlikely to be beaten in the final 20 minutes. With the chequered flag being out, signalling the end to the second day of pre-season testing, and that day's afternoon session, Goethe's time would not be beaten and he would end the afternoon session fastest. Despite finishing fastest of the session, Goethe would not be fastest overall, with that honour instead going to Gabriele Mini for his morning lap time of 1:23.660. In the afternoon session, it would be Goethe of MP Motorsport top in a double MP Motorsport top three. Goethe's teammate Richard Verschoor would be third fastest in a positive session for the team. Hitech TGR driver Dino Beganovic would be second. Invicta Racing's Roman Stanek and Van Amersfoort's Rafael Villagomez would be fourth and fifth of the afternoon respectively. In sixth and seventh of the afternoon session would be Trident duo Sami Meguetounif and Max Esterson, with eighth place going to former Trident Formula 3 driver Leonardo Fornaroli. Christian Mansell of Rodin Motorsport and Luke Browning of Hitech completed the top 10 of the afternoon session. Overall, Mini would be fastest from ART driver Ritomo Miyata, who was less than a tenth away from the Italian driver. It would be both ART drivers in the top four as Victor Martins would end up fourth. Hitech's Luke Browning would be third. The overall top five would be completed by AIX Racing's Joshua Durksen. Sixth would be the home of Arvid Lindblad, in the overall classification, with the Campos driver ahead of Rodin Motorsport's Alex Dunne in seventh. Pepe Marti was eighth with the top two afternoon lap times, from Oliver Goethe and Dino Beganovic would complete the top 10. The pair would be ninth and 10th respectively. Formula 2 pre-season testing would return on Wednesday to be completed, with the third and final day of running. Following that will be the opening round of the 2025 racing season. 2025 FIA Formula 2 Championship: Pre-season testing - Barcelona Day 2 overall classification
 Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal
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