[caption id="attachment_8230" align="alignleft" width="5472"] Juan Manuel Correa (Sauber Junior Team by Charouz) tops final session on Day 3. An F2 image[/caption]

Barcelona, 7 March 2019: Nyck de Vries has once again topped the timesheets in the final day of the FIA Formula 2 pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona. The ART Grand Prix driver set a laptime of 1:27.024 in the morning session to head Luca Ghiotto and Louis Delétraz. In the afternoon, Juan Manuel Correa was quickest.

Earlier on Day 2, Indian racer Mahaveer Raghunathan of MP Motorsport put in 39 laps and logged in a creditable seventh fastest time. After learning the nuances of motorsport in karting, Mahaveer graduated to Formula cars in 2012 by competing in the JK Racing Asia Series. In 2013, he drove in the MRF Challenge Formula 1600. He also participated in three races of the Chinese Formula Masters. In 2014, Mahaveer moved to Europe and joined F&M in the Italian Formula 4 Championship. In 2015, he participated in the European Formula 3 championship for Motopark Academy. The 2016 season was his most productive with second overall finish in the Auto GP racing for Coloni's Italian team PS Racing. At the end of the season, he weighed various options and even tested GP2 cars in Abu Dhabi. In 2017, he won the BOSS GP-Formula Class Championship with the Italian Team Coloni Racing securing 13 podiums out of 14 races and ended the season as Champion.

Coming back to F2 testing, the studious afternoon was halted only once: forty minutes into the session Nikita Mazepin span and stopped at Turn 4. In the closing stages, Ralph Boschung dipped under 1m29s to go top ahead of Roberto Merhi who also improved with less than 20 minutes left on the clock.

At te chequered flag, behind Boschung and Merhi, Matsuhita, Correa, Delétraz, Ilott, Raghunathan, Anthoine Hubert, Aitken and Gelael completed the top ten.

Day 3 of testing opened in sunny conditions. Nicholas Latifi was the first driver to hit the track whilst de Vries set the early pace ahead of Ghiotto. The Dutchman improved further to set a time of 1:27.576 in the first half hour of the running. Carlin’s drivers Delétraz and Nobuharu Matsushita also broke the 1m28s barrier to move up to second and third respectively.

The drivers switched from Medium to Soft tyres and Ghiotto went top in a 1:27.263 whilst teammate Guanyu Zhou moved up to second (+0.191s). De Vries also found some extra pace to clock in a blazing laptime of 1:27.024 as Delétraz went third quickest behind Ghiotto.

Just before the midway point, the man of the day de Vries spun and stopped at Turn 2 bringing out a red flag. The remainder of the session was dedicated to race simulations and pit stop practices. At the chequered flag the top 3 remained unchanged. Zhou, Matsushita, Nikita Mazepin, Jack Aitken, Sérgio Sette Câmara, Sean Gelael and Ralph Boschung rounded up the top 10.

After a one-hour break, the pit lane re-opened. Delétraz was the first man back on track ten minutes later. Soon after that Roberto Merhi signed the quickest laptime to sit pretty at the top of the timesheets ahead of Tatiana Calderon and Boschung.

It was a studious afternoon for the teams and the drivers who once again focused on long runs. Twenty minutes before the chequered flag, Correa went fastest by three tenths over Merhi. Calderon ended third ahead of Boschung, Richard Verschoor (who replaced Jordan King at MP Motorsport today), Sette Câmara, Matsushita, Gelael, Aitken and Latifi.

This concluded the pre-season testing for the FIA Formula 2 Championship. It’s time for the teams to pack up and get ready for the first Round of the 2019 season which will kick off at the Bahrain International circuit on March 29-31.

FIA Formula 2 Barcelona Test – Day 3 Morning Session

DRIVER

TEAM

LAPTIME

LAPS

1

Nyck de Vries

ART Grand Prix

1:27.024

24

2

Luca Ghiotto

UNI Virtuosi

1:27.263

29

3

Louis Delétraz

Carlin

1:27.421

23

4

Guanyu Zhou

UNI Virtuosi

1:27.454

30

5

Nobuharu Matsushita

Carlin

1:27.585

30

6

Nikita Mazepin

ART Grand Prix

1:27.731

38

7

Jack Aitken

Campos Racing

1:27.817

23

8

Sérgio Sette Câmara

DAMS

1:27.821

29

9

Sean Gelael

PREMA Racing

1:27.959

38

10

Ralph Boschung

Trident

1:27.960

43

11

Mick Schumacher

PREMA Racing

1:28.022

51

12

Callum Ilott

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:28.022

49

13

Roberto Merhi

Campos Racing

1:28.209

27

14

Juan Manuel Correa

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:28.424

26

15

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:28.463

39

16

Giuliano Alesi

Trident

1:28.782

52

17

Anthoine Hubert

BWT Arden

1:28.856

31

18

Richard Verchoor

MP Motorsport

1:28.892

36

19

Mahaveer Raghunathan

MP Motorsport

1:29.955

26

20

Tatiana Calderon

BWT Arden

1:30.503

19

FIA Formula 2 Barcelona Test – Day 3 Afternoon Session

DRIVER

TEAM

LAPTIME

LAPS

1

Juan Manuel Correa

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:30.095

49

2

Roberto Merhi

Campos Racing

1:30.441

43

3

Tatiana Calderon

BWT Arden

1:30.508

57

4

Ralph Boschung

Trident

1:32.768

49

5

Richard Verchoor

MP Motorsport

1:33.039

44

6

Sérgio Sette Câmara

DAMS

1:34.374

46

7

Nobuharu Matsushita

Carlin

1:34.403

57

8

Sean Gelael

PREMA Racing

1:34.433

54

9

Jack Aitken

Campos Racing

1:34.551

47

10

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:34.687

64

11

Nyck de Vries

ART Grand Prix

1:34.712

58

12

Louis Delétraz

Carlin

1:34.784

52

13

Guanyu Zhou

UNI Virtuosi

1:34.817

44

14

Luca Ghiotto

UNI Virtuosi

1:35.048

56

15

Nikita Mazepin

ART Grand Prix

1:35.050

58

16

Giuliano Alesi

Trident

1:35.083

47

17

Anthoine Hubert

BWT Arden

1:35.238

59

18

Mahaveer Raghunathan

MP Motorsport

1:35.554

33

19

Mick Schumacher

PREMA Racing

1:35.879

63

20

Callum Ilott

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:36.055

39

FIA Formula 2 Barcelona Test – Day 1 Morning Session

DRIVER

TEAM

LAPTIME

LAPS

1

Sérgio Sette Camâra

DAMS

1:27.392

34

2

Nyck de Vries

ART Grand Prix

1:27.507

41

3

Guanyu Zhou

UNI Virtuosi

1:27.562

43

4

Louis Delétraz

Carlin

1:27.620

30

5

Luca Ghiotto

UNI Virtuosi

1:27.922

34

6

Mick Schumacher

PREMA Racing

1:28.024

32

7

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:28.139

31

8

Callum Ilott

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:28.151

13

9

Nobuharu Matsushita

Carlin

1:28.163

29

10

Sean Gelael

PREMA Racing

1:28.243

23

11

Jack Aitken

Campos Racing

1:28.270

20

12

Jordan King

MP Motorsport

1:28.299

23

13

Juan Manuel Correa

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:28.493

35

14

Nikita Mazepin

ART Grand Prix

1:28.529

41

15

Ralph Boschung

Trident

1:28.652

29

16

Roberto Merhi

Campos Racing

1:28.743

22

17

Anthoine Hubert

BWT Arden

1:28.913

30

18

Giuliano Alesi

Trident

1:28.988

49

19

Tatiana Calderon

BWT Arden

1:29.682

32

20

Mahaveer Raghunathan

MP Motorsport

1:29.828

25

FIA Formula 2 Barcelona Test – Day 2 Afternoon Session

DRIVER

TEAM

LAPTIME

LAPS

1

Ralph Boschung

Trident

1:28.789

27

2

Roberto Merhi

Campos Racing

1:29.183

31

3

Nobuharu Matsushita

Carlin

1:29.476

37

4

Juan Manuel Correa

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:29.555

45

5

Louis Delétraz

Carlin

1:29.841

41

6

Callum Ilott

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:30.759

44

7

Mahaveer Raghunathan

MP Motorsport

1:31.232

39

8

Anthoine Hubert

BWT Arden

1:31.448

41

9

Jack Aitken

Campos Racing

1:32.068

55

10

Sean Gelael

PREMA Racing

1:32.608

64

11

Jordan King

MP Motorsport

1:32.947

31

12

Nikita Mazepin

ART Grand Prix

1:33.158

54

13

Guanyu Zhou

UNI Virtuosi

1:34.454

47

14

Nicholas Latifi

DAMS

1:34.575

55

15

Giuliano Alesi

Trident

1:34.644

35

16

Nyck de Vries

ART Grand Prix

1:34.656

53

17

Luca Ghiotto

UNI Virtuosi

1:34.869

32

18

Sérgio Sette Câmara

DAMS

1:35.354

52

19

Mick Schumacher

PREMA Racing

1:35.624

13

20

Tatiana Calderon

BWT Arden

1:36.525

29