FORMULA 2
 Credit: Alex Caparros After a Monday morning session heavily disrupted by fog, Arvid Lindblad set the fastest time on the opening day of pre-season testing in Barcelona. Lindblad would set his fastest time in the afternoon session as the Brit builds towards his first Formula 2 campaign, and his first ever race in March at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia. Following the fog, the morning session's start was delayed by 45 minutes to a 09:45 start, opposed to the original scheduled start time of 09:00. The session would also be shortened in length, from three hours to two hours and 45 minutes. Lindblad's afternoon lap time of 1:24.415 was the time to see him at the top of the sheets in a fantastic showing from the young rookie, who will be looking to impress on his journey towards the top flight of motorsport. The 17-year old would be in the top four of all rookies. Prema's Gabriele Mini would finish second overall, with his afternoon time less than a tenth behind LIndblad's effort. Reigning Formula 3 Champion Leonardo Fornaroli was third for Invicta Racing. The fourth rookie was the other Prema of Sebastian Montoya, who was ahead of Lindblad's Campos teammate Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti, who completed the top five. How Day 1 of Formula 2 pre-season testing unfolded in BarcelonaFollowing the closest Formula 2 Championship fight since the championship was formed in 2017, the top open-wheel feeder series championship returns for 2025. The championship that has seen 12 of the 20 drivers of the 2025 Formula 1 grid compete and show their talent, which has ultimately led to them getting their Formula 1 seats, and making a name for themselves in the pinnacle of world motorsport. A vast amount of rookies mixed with returning drivers were set to embark on a new chapter of the Formula 2 Championship. The 2025 campaign would be the second season of this new era of machinery, that embarked on its rookie season in 2024.
Monday morning would arrive and pre-season testing would be raring to go for the opening session of six, and the opening day of the three-day test. The first on-track action of the 2025 FIA Formula 2 Championship was set to get underway. However, there would be delay to the start of the session and the appearance of cars on track as fog was looming at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya, meaning visibility was low and therefore increasing the levels of potential danger. Race Control of pre-season testing would delay the start of the session by 45 minutes, while giving chance for the low-level fog and low visibility a chance to improve, so the testing could be carried out in a safe and proper manner. The session would instead be readjusted to last two hours and 45 minutes, as opposed to three hours. The session would run from 9:45am to 12:30pm, in order to give a fair amount of running to the teams and drivers, within the morning session. Eventually, the green light would be on at the end of the pit lane and the session would get underway, with there being a slow approach to the cars heading onto the circuit, but many would during the first 10 minutes of running. However, as soon as flying lap times were looking to be set, the session would be suspended with the first red flag of the pre-season testing period. The timing and positioning boards showed that Rodin Motorsport's Alex Dunne had come to a stop, and the Irish driver would suspend running for the time being. The session would be back underway but there would be very little track action for an hour with 70 minutes remaining. Only 15 drivers of the 22 had set lap times, in what had become a seriously disrupted session. Roman Stanek of Invicta Racing would be the driver to beat with his provisional best lap time, and also provisionally the best of the session - a 1:26.734. Stanek would be the driver to beat as he was ahead of ART driver Ritomo Miyata, who was second within a tenth. Despite bringing out a red flag, according to the timing system data, Dunne would sit third and would be back out on circuit. Under an hour to go and the entire top three had changed. Italian rookie Gabriele Mini would be top for Prema, with a lap time of 1:26.227, ahead of ART's Victor Martins in second - by under a tenth of a second. Mini's Prema teammate Sebastian Montoya would be in third. Improvements would continue to be made and with around half an hour remaining, still only 17 of the 22-driver grid had set lap times. with Mini having his time still unbeaten. However, it would be matched by MP Motorsport's Oliver Goethe. Due to Mini having set the time first, he would be on top with Goethe in second. Martins, Montoya and Stanek would be the remaining places in the top five positions. Approaching the final 10, and an improvement from Martins would see the French driver jump above Mini and to provisionally fastest overall. Mini would drop to second with Goethe now in third place. By the end of the session, Martins' rapid lap time of 1:25.790 would see him comfortable at the top of the time sheets - a good four tenths clear of the anyone else in the field, with 21 of the 22 drivers setting representative lap times. Martins would be top from Mini and Goethe, as the top three remained unchanged throughout the latter stages of a heavily-disrupted morning session. Montoya and Stanek would be fourth and fifth respectively. Dunne was sixth ahead of the second ART of Miyata. Luke Browning would end his first pre-season session of Formula 2 in eighth. Campos duo Arvid Lindblad and Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti would complete the top 10.
After a lunch break, it was time for the first afternoon session of 2025 pre-season testing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship. Following heavy disruption in the morning, due to fog, and the odd red flag being flown, teams and drivers would have been hoping for smooth running and continuous track time. This would be in the hope of gathering valuable car and lap data for the season ahead. The green light would then be on at the end of the pit lane and the afternoon session would be underway, in the sunny afternoon at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya. It would be a relatively slow start to the afternoon's proceedings with 45 minutes of the first hour gone and 11 of the 22 drivers had laid down lap times, with non representative and would be looking to go again. MP Motorsport's Richard Verchoor would be the driver leading the way with a provisional best lap time of 1:25.710. A lap time that was over a second clear of second place Pepe Marti. Irish driver Alex Dunne was a provisional third for Rodin Motorsport. There would be a red flag in the opening hour, which would be for the Trident of American driver Max Esterson. The rookie, who graduated from FIA Formula 3 at the end of 2024, would suspend the session, and would aim to rejoin the session if his car was to be repaired. However, in the first half of the session, this would fail to be the only stoppage. Hitech's Dino Beganovic, who picked up his maiden Formula 2 podium in the final round of the 2024 campaign, would come to a stop bringing a halt to proceedings. This stoppage would not take a while until green flag conditions were flying again, but rhythm was disrupted once again on the opening day of Formula 2 pre-season testing. Beganovic had improved himself up to second prior to the red flag, with Verschoor's time still standing pretty at the top of the time sheets. Leonardo Fornaroli, Luke Browning and Christian Mansell would make up the top five. Time would progress through the second hour of proceedings and with 75 minutes of the afternoon session remaining, it was still Verschoor fastest for the MP Motorsport team. Verschoor was ahead of Beganovic who had returned to the circuit in second. Browning had progressed to third for Hitech. The top three would remain the same with exactly an hour to go. Verschoor, Beganovic, Browning, Fornaroli and Campos' Arvid Lindblad rounded out the top five, with an improvement on his previous lap times. Many lap times would be laid down in the final hour of proceedings in Barcelona, for the opening day of pre-season testing. There would be many improvements before the end of the session. However, the session would not finish with the other Trident car Sami Meguetounif running into issues. All 22 drivers would though get representative lap times set to round off a frustrating day for the 2025 teams and drivers. By the end of the session, it would be the Brit Arvid Lindblad, who would end the afternoon session fastest, as well as the day overall. Lindblad, Red Bull junior driver, would set a lap time of 1:24.415 in a great effort from the Campos driver. A strong showing from 2025 rookies would see four of which make the top five, in the afternoon session as well as the overall classification. Lindblad would finish under a tenth clear of second place Gabriele Mini of Prema. Leonardo Fornaroli would round off the top three for reigning teams' champions. Sebastian Montoya, Mini's teammate, would be the fourth rookie in fourth place, with Lindblad's Campos teammate Pepe Marti rounded off the top five in a great day for the Spanish team on home soil. Alex Dunne, the first ever Irish Formula 2, would end the day and afternoon in sixth, ahead of his Rodin Motorsport teammate Christian Mansell in seventh. Hitech's Luke Browning was eighth ahead of Roman Stanek and Richard Verschoor, who rounded off the top 10. 2025 FIA Formula 2 pre-season testing would return for Day 2 in Barcelona on Tuesday morning for a busy day of action for all 11 teams and 22 drivers on the 2025 grid, 2025 FIA Formula 2 Championship: Pre-season testing - Barcelona Day 1 result
 Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal
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