Martins quickest for ART Grand Prix on Day 1 of Sakhir test

Victor Martins led the field on the opening day of in-season testing in Sakhir, Bahrain. The Frenchman put in a late effort of a 1:42.536 to end Day 1 with the quickest time for ART Grand Prix. In the morning session, Roman Stanek of Invicta Racing finished up fastest.

MORNING

Arvid Lindblad set the ball rolling in the opening half hour, with a 1:47.820 the time to beat early on. That was then bettered by the Campos Racing driver as he lowered that effort to a 1:47.308 shortly afterwards.

ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins was the next to take over in P1, the Frenchman going quickest and then improving on his time to lower the benchmark to a 1:47.131.

DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford then pipped him after an hour of running, 1:47.032 putting the American on top, until Oliver Goethe became the first into the 1:46’s. The MP Motorsport driver moved his best time down to a 1:46.775.

Josep María Martí then put Campos back on top. The Spaniard’s 1:46.604 kicked off a busy second hour as longer runs and aero tests became the focus for many.

Roman Stanek then rose to the top of the times next as he put in a 1:46.454 in the final 25 minutes, good enough for the Invicta Racing to take P1. With just over five minutes to go, the Czech driver, fitted with Soft Pirelli tyres, put in a 1:44.789 and went almost two seconds clear of the pack, to end the first session comfortably fastest.

AFTERNOON

After the break, Lindblad hit the ground running once again under the floodlights, setting a 1:45.876 in the opening 10 minutes.

Teammate Martí then improved twice to bring the time to beat down to a 1:44.996, becoming the first driver to break into the 1:44s.

Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli then slotted into second place with a lap that was 0.561s down on the Spaniard’s earlier time.

With an hour and a half to go, Sami Meguetounif moved up the timing screens to go P1 for TRIDENT, until 2024 F3 teammate Fornaroli went fastest, as he put in a 1:44.911.

Into the final hour of the session and Campos were on the up once more, as Lindblad and then Martí returned the Spanish outfit to the top of the timing screens. The latter’s 1:42.584 was comfortably quickest, 0.420s ahead of his teammate.

Improvements from Fornaroli and Crawford then cut the advantage to 0.130s as the pair dipped into the 1:42s along with Martí.

Into the final minutes however, and Victor Martins put in a 1:42.536 for ART, narrowly beating Martí’s effort to go fastest for the day.

Fornaroli finished up third ahead of TRIDENT’s Max Esterson, Crawford and Lindblad. Amaury Cordeel was seventh for Rodin Motorsport, with Ritomo Miyata, Alexander Dunne and Gabriele Minì rounding out the top 10.

Day 2 is set to begin at 12:30 local time on Thursday.

2025 FIA FORMULA 2 CHAMPIONSHIP – SAKHIR IN-SEASON TEST, DAY 1, MORNING SESSION

2025 FIA FORMULA 2 CHAMPIONSHIP – SAKHIR IN-SEASON TEST, DAY 1, AFTERNOON SESSION