| The first day of the second of the two pre-season tests was held at the Sakhir International Circuit in Bahrain on Wednesday with the three-hour morning session taking place under clear skies and warm temperatures. For the first two hours there was little action as the teams ran installation laps and the drivers waited for the surface of the track to be “cleaned” and neither of the Racing Engineering drivers, Louis Delétraz and Gustav Malja, completed a flying lap. As the session reached its final hour both men took to the track and began to set some fast times on their medium compound Pirellis with Louis on 1:42.353 and Gustav a little slower on 1:43.263 and they finished the three hours on these times.
The afternoon session began under grey skies and after twenty minutes it began to rain and as the track got wetter all the cars returned to the pits, As the rain eased both Louis and Gustav took the opportunity to run on wet tyres but lap times were about ten seconds slower than a dry time. As the track dried, although it was still damp in places, Louis set some fast times to finish on 1:44.728 while Gustav did not drive in the improved conditions leaving him with a best time of 1:54.155.
The weather was much improved for Thursday morning with blue skies and plenty of sun. Louis and Gustav were soon setting some quick laps with times of 1:42.447 and 1:42.930 respectively and, despite a red flag, Louis soon improved to 1:41.463. As the session entered the final thirty minutes Gustav closed in on his teammate with a time of 1:42.347 and they finished the three hours on these times. After a two hour break the cars were back on track and, although for much of the three hours, the Racing Engineering team concentrated on race simulations and pit stop practice Gustav was soon amongst the quickest setting the second fastest time of 1:43.064 as the session reached the halfway point. The young Swede continued to improve and with thirty minutes remaining he set a lap of 1:41.743, his fastest time of the two days, and he finished the session as the second fastest man. Louis made no attempt to go for a quick lap and his best time was 1:44.415 after thirty-seven laps.
The final day of testing, Friday, saw the weather turn cooler but, fortunately, there was no rain and the Racing Engineering drivers were able to continue their development work with both Louis and Gustav able to improve on their previous fastest laps with times of 1:41.281 and 1:41.592 respectively after ninety minutes. The final hour of the session was devoted to pit stop practice so neither driver improved their times during this period.
The afternoon session started quietly with few cars on track and after an hour neither Louis or Gustav had completed a flying lap. At the ninety-minute Mark both men had started to run laps as they went for a race simulation with Gustav setting a 1:48.093 lap with Louis right behind on 1:48.514. After two hours of the session both men had improved their times with Gustav now on 1:47.619 and Louis on 1:48.285 and in the final hour a further reduction in times left Louis on 1:46.314 and Gustav on 1:46.539.
It is now just two weeks to the opening race of the 2017 FIA Formula 2 Championship and Racing Engineering have now completed their second three day test with Louis and Gustav proving to be very evenly matched and with both men completing a total of almost three hundred laps they are fully prepared for what looks likely to be one of the closest ever seasons. |
