DE VRIES ON TOP ON FINAL MORNING OF BAHRAIN TEST

Nyck De Vries has set the pace in this morning’s penultimate session of the FIA Formula 2 test at the Bahrain International Circuit, improving his times as his rivals closed in before finally stopping the clock at 1:40.583, just thousands ahead of Nobuharu Matsushita and Oliver Rowland.

The session opened under overcast conditions and slightly cooler temperatures than seen for the last two days, with De Vries clearly enjoying the elements as he set the early pace. The PREMA pair were soon looking to knock the Dutchman off his perch, with both Charles Leclerc and then Antonio Fuoco taking over on top of the timesheets, with the Italian the first to drop below 1:41.

At the one hour mark yesterday’s quickest driver Nicholas Latifi grabbed the top spot, but teammate Oliver Rowland had his eye on the prize: the Briton dethroned the Canadian by just eight hundredths, with Matsushita soon splitting the DAMS pair, indicating the fine margins between the teams, but with just over a half an hour remaining De Vries stole past them all, grabbing P1 by just seven thousands of a second.

The closing period of the session was given over to pit stop practice and set up work in preparation for the opening round in Bahrain two weeks hence, handing the honours to De Vries. The final session of the test will commence in just one hour’s time.

Day 3 Morning results