Kush Maini tops final session of the 3-day F2 pre-season Test
Sakhir 16 Feb 2023: Campos Racing’s Kush Maini, the Indian racing star, topped the final session on the third and final day of Formula 2’s pre-season testing in Sakhir here on Thursday.
Kush Maini, the younger of the Maini brothers, put in a total of 73 laps on Day 2 finishing 9th and 10th in the morning and afternoon sessions, respectively. In the morning on the final day Maini tested 36 laps and finished 19th.
The other Indian in F2, Jehan Daruvala, who is driving for MP Motorsport this year, began the 3-day test with a second-fastest time in the first session of Day 1 and followed with an 8th place in the afternoon session on the opening day. On day to with an eye on putting in more laps for the data, he did 33 laps in the morning session and finished 18th and later in the evening he came 12th.
In the final session of the three days of testing, Kush Maini kept the Spanish team at the top of the order. A late series of one-lap sprints saw the Indian driver post the best lap of the day, with a 1:42.623 putting him in front of Roy Nissany and Théo Pourchaire.
SESSION 1
Earlier in the opening session, Ralph Boschung was well clear of the pack. He laid down a time of 1:45.063 eight minutes into running, finishing two seconds ahead of Trident’s Clément Novalak.
Ralph Boschung broke the 1:45 barrier within the first eight minutes of track time and remained the only driver to do so, as first of the day’s two sessions focused on race simulations. He later lowered his personal best by 0.036s eight minutes later.
Clément Novalak and Dennis Hauger traded turns in P2 early on, slowly reducing Boschung’s advantage from 4.9s to 2s. However, it was the Frenchman who eventually won out at the chequered flag, finishing ahead of Victor Martins. Roy Nissany was the busiest man out on track in fourth, with 46 laps to his name.
Meanwhile, it was all about the mileage and team preparations for the first race weekend of the ’23 campaign in a fortnight’s time. Racking up 759 laps of the Bahrain International Circuit, all drivers completed at least 20 laps.
