FORMULA 2
 Credit: James Sutton Trident rookie Sami Meguetounif would set the fastest time on Wednesday to end the final day of pre-season testing fastest in Barcelona. Meguetounif had made the step up to FIA Formula 2 with Trident, after an impressive rookie season with the Italian team in FIA Formula 3. He would finish the three-day pre-season test in Barcelona, on a high by setting the fastest time of the final day. The French racer set a 1:24.363, which was three tenths clear of the rest of the field in the overall classification. In second place overall, was the ART driver Victor Martins, whose morning time saw him in second position. In third, with his afternoon lap time, would be the Irish driver Alex Dunne of MP Motorsport. It would be the final track action in FIA Formula 2 until the first round of the 2025 season at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia. How Day 3 of Formula 2 pre-season testing unfolded in BarcelonaAfter two days of pre-season testing to kick off the 2025 FIA Formula 2 track action, it would be time for the third and final day at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya on Wednesday. The past two days of action had seen many different lap times, with it being two rookie driver that had topped both of the first two days. On the opening day, Red Bull junior and Campos driver Arvid Lindblad would be fastest. While on the second day, the Alpine Academy and Prema driver Gabriele Mini would end the day fastest with his time of 1:23.660 coming in the morning session, ahead of ART driver Ritomo Miyata. There would be four exclusions from the Day 2 running order due to them breaking the 2025 FIA Formula 2 Sporting Regulations. The four drivers would be DAMS' Jak Crawford, Trident's Max Esterson, as well as the Rodin Motorsport duo Christian Mansell and Alex Dunne. All would be disqualified from both the morning and afternoon sessions of Day 2.
Wednesday morning would roll around and it would be time for Day 3 action of pre-season testing in the 2025 FIA Formula 2 Championship. with it set to be a busy day of running for the teams and drivers. There would be a start to proceedings with the green light coming on at the end of the pit lane to signal the start of the session and the final morning session of pre-season testing for the 2025 Formula 2 campaign. It would be a very slow first half of the session, with very little track action happening. This would not be what was to be expected with many red flags playing their part in disrupting pre-season testing in 2025. By the halfway point, it would be Irish driver Alex Dunne, who would sit provisionally fastest of the morning session with a lap of 1:27.580. Dunne, of Rodin Motorsport, would be sat four tenths clear of teammate Christian Mansell, who was four tenths back in second place With one hour and 20 minutes of the session remaining, just nine drivers had set flying laps, with only Mansell, Max Esterson and Luke Browning out on circuit with the others firmly in the pit lane and not willing to head out on circuit. However, drivers would start to come out onto the circuit and put some lap times on the timing boards, with MP Motorsport's Richard Verschoor going quickest with 55 minutes remaining. A 1:27.013 was Verschoor's time, who was ahead of Trident's Sami Meguetounif in second. Versschoor's MP Motorsport teammate Oliver Goethe was third. Verschoor, Meguetounif, Goethe, Dunne and Mansell would be the provisional top five from that point, as time continued to tick down. However, the final hour would pick up in the levels of on-track activity and many drivers would be attempting flying laps for the first time in the session, where some were concerned.With 10 minutes of the session remaining, the leaderboard would be completely different up at the top. ART Grand Prix would be the team enjoying most of the success with their drivers 1-2 with 10 minutes remaining. Victor Martins would be the guy fastest from his Japanese teammate Ritomo Miyata. The DAMS Lucas Oil duo would be up to third and fourth with Jak Crawford ahead of teammate Kush Maini. Martins' time was a 1:24.673 but the session would be paused as the red flag would be brought out. Christian Mansell would be the driver, who had come to a stop bringing out the red flag. It would be a short stoppage as drivers would head back out for some last-gasp lap improvements, to end the morning pre-season test sessions on a high. However, in the last laps that were being set, there would be a second red flag! This time it would be Martins who had a moment in the middle part of the lap. Therefore, Martins would have his session ended, but with little time left, he would also end the session for everyone else. Martins would finish the session fastest for ART. Kush Maini would have been second but he completed his lap after the red flag was flown and therefore would lose that improved time and would drop back to fourth. It would be an ART 1-2 with Martins and Miyata first and second respectively. The DAMS Lucas Oil duo would be third and fourth, with Jak Crawford in third, ahead of Maini. Trident's Max Esterson would complete the top five. AIX Racing's Joshua Durksen would end the session in sixth place, ahead of the Van Amersfoort duo Rafael Villagomez and John Bennett, who were seventh and eighth respectively. MP's Richard Verschoor and Campos' Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti completed the top 10.
After a break for lunch, following a morning session that saw an intense final hour, attention would be turned to the final afternoon session of pre-season testing. The afternoon session at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya would mark the end of pre-season testing for the 2025 FIA Formula 2 Championship. All pre-season preparation the drivers and teams would need to get in, would need to come within the three hours of the afternoon session. Ultimately, the final three-hour test of the week in pre-season testing would begin with the green light coming on at the end of the pit lane. In the first 15 minutes, there would be some lap times laid down by drivers, who were not wasting too much time, heading onto the circuit and gathering data. The early stages would see Campos' Arvid Lindblad top of the times with a 1:25.427 in a positive start to proceedings for the Brit. Lindblad was fastest from the two MP Motorsport drivers, Richard Verschoor and Oliver Goethe, who were second and third respectively. There would be an hour gone in proceedings, as would be top spot for the Campos of Lindblad, as the Trident of Sami Meguetounif would go to the top of the timing pages. Meguetounif would set a 1:24.363 - a full second clear of Lindblad in second place. Many drivers were on circuit for the start of the second hour, of the afternoon session, with 16 of the 22 drivers having laid down a lap time on the board, as they were trying to put in maximum effort in the final session of pre-season testing. However, there would be a red flag stoppage, that would affect running in the first half of the afternoon session. Van Amersfoort Racing's John Bennett had come to a stop in the final sector bringing out the familiar red flag. The session would get back underway and at the halfway point, Meguetounif would remain top from Lindblad, with Richard Verschoor, Alex Dunne and Pepe Marti would complete the top five provisionally. A few more drivers would be laying down their first lap times of the afternoon, with all teams and drivers being unable to afford any more long stoppage or momentum disruptions throughout their practice runs. Entering the final hour of testing and the top five would remain unchanged with the time 1:24.363 of Meguetounif becoming difficult to get close to, as Lindblad in second was a second back on the top of the times. With just over 20 minutes to go, both Rodin Motorsport drivers would leap themselves in the top five, the two drivers being Dunne and Christian Mansell. Dunne leapt himself into second, behind Meguetounif, but ahead of Lindblad. As for Mansell, he would leap into fifth, behind Verschoor but ahead of the other Campos in Pepe Marti. It would not be pre-season testing in 2025 for Formula 2, if the red flag was to not return in the final hour. Oliver Goethe came to a stop in the second sector and would bring a halt to proceedings, while the on-track marshals removed the MP Motorsport car from the circuit. By the end of the afternoon session, Meguetounif's time of 1:24.363 would remain unbeaten and he would finish the session fastest for Trident. Not only would Meguetounif only top the afternoon session, but he would also finish fastest overall on the final day. Meguetounif would be fastest of the afternoon session with Alex Dunne finishing second for Rodin Motorsport, which would end up being third overall, behind the ART of Victor Martins in the overall finish. Meguetounif, Dunne and Lindblad would be the afternoon's top three. Richard Verschoor of MP Motorsport would elevate himself to fourth place in the afternoon times, with the other Rodin of Christian Mansell completed the top five. Both AIX Racing drivers, Joshua Durksen and Cian Shields would end themselves sixth and seventh respectively for the afternoon. Pepe Marti would be eighth of the afternoon results, with ART's Victor Martins and Trident's Max Esterson completing the top 10 of the afternoon. Following the conclusion of the afternoon session, that would signal the end to the final day at the Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya and the end to the Formula 2 pre-season testing 2025. The next track action, in 2025 for FIA Formula 2, will come at Albert park in Melbourne, Australia for the opening round of the championship season. 2025 FIA Formula 2 Championship: Pre-season testing - Barcelona Day 3 overall classification
 Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal
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