Camara stays fast as F2 test concludes; Herta fourth in final session

Rafael Camara set the fastest time of the Barcelona test on the third and final morning of Formula 2 pre-season testing for Invicta Racing. The Brazilian’s 1m23.252s was good enough to put him top by a quarter of a second over Campos Racing’s Noel Leon and Nikola Tsolov, who rounded out the top three when the times were at their quickest.

In the afternoon, Cian Shields led the way for AIX Racing ahead of Campos’ León and teammate Emerson Fittipaldi, while IndyCar ace Colton Herta was a strong fourth for Hitech.

MORNING SESSION

Van Amersfoort Racing led the way early on as Rafael Villagomez and then Nico Varrone took turns at the top before Campos emerged from the pitlane.

Leon secured P1 as he dipped down into the 1m23s, but teammate Tsolov then went quicker, logging a 1m23.654s to lead the field. Approaching the hour mark, the first red flag of the day arrived after Varrone got stuck in the gravel at the final corner. The Argentinian’s car was recovered but another red flag waved shortly after, this time teammate Villagomez the one off the road at the last turn. With his car clear, running resumed only for a third stoppage, this time when Leon stopped on track. His Campos was recovered back to the pitlane and the morning session resumed with just over an hour to go.

Camara then delivered the fastest time of the test to that point, logging a 1m23.252s to go comfortably quickest for Invicta. Leon was able to bring the gap down to 0.274s but nobody could beat the Invicta driver's effort.

Tsolov followed his teammate in third, ahead of Laurens van Hoepen and Gabriele Minì in the top five. Sixth was Colton Herta, just in front of Mari Boya, Ritomo Miyata, Dino Beganovic and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak in P10.

AFTERNOON SESSION

Following the break, race runs began with Hitech taking to the track along with AIX Racing as Miyata took over at the top.

Rodin Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne later moved up to P1 with a 1m29.362s, giving him a 0.073s advantage over Camara in P2. ART Grand Prix emerged from the garage to begin their afternoon running, going 1-2 with Kush Maini leading teammate Inthraphuvasak with a 1m28.582s putting him 0.291s ahead of the Thai driver.

Race running became the focus for the majority of the final afternoon, as teams looked to gather as much data as possible before the season opener in Melbourne on March 6-8. There were a few more improvements late on in the day, with AIX Racing’s Cian Shields going fastest on a 1m26.269s, 0.039s ahead of Leon, who moved himself up to P2 inside the final 15 minutes.

There was one last red flag for the day after van Hoepen stopped on the pit straight, but after his car was recovered, the final minutes elapsed with no further improvements from anyone.

Fittipaldi finished the afternoon third ahead of Herta, Maini, Miyata, Inthraphuvasak, Boya, Camara and van Hoepen in the final top 10 of the test.

RESULTS:

MORNING SESSION

AFTERNOON SESSION