In an all-Valencian battle, after Nerea Marti it was Marta Garcia to end fastest in the second F1 Academy practice session, ahead of Prema teammate Bianca Bustamante and Abbi Pulling – amidst track limits struggles for most of the field.
Another Valencian on top: Marta GarcÃa returned on top of the leaderboard in a dominant second practice session at Circuito Ricardo Tormo, where the Prema driver was unbeaten throughout the 40 minute session, ending with a big margin of over 7 tenths of a second.
The Spaniard, already a two-time race winner after the season opener at Spielberg, set the early pace ahead of Abbi Pulling and Bianca Bustamante after the first round of timed laps.
Track limits were the big talking point after the first morning practice – and continued to be a major issue for the 15 drivers, as several times were deleted across the field. Lola Lovinfosse and Amna Al Qubaisi were the most affected, but most of the drivers have now received at least a warning after the two sessions.
Bianca Bustamante and Hamda Al Qubaisi improved their times and slotted ahead of Pulling, as the closest pursuers of Garcia; the Spaniard’s pace, though, remained widely unchallenged, having signed all three fastest sectors in the session.
Bustamante moved into second, ahead of Pulling – who improved with a 1:35.601 – and Hamda Al Qubaisi, 0.001 behind. The always solid Léna Bühler was once again in the top five, preceding ART Grand Prix teammate Carrie Schreiner, who is progressing at impressive pace in her re-adaptation to single seaters after 7 years in GT racing.
Amna Al Qubaisi was seventh fastest despite losing most of her laps to track limits infringements, clear of session 1 leader Nerea Martà in eighth.
With high temperatures and only 3 and a half sets of new tyres across the weekend, times were over a second slower than FP1. Emely de Heus and Chloe Grant completed the top ten.
The Scottish racer brought out the only red flag of the day so far, with a harmless spin in the gravel at turn 4 with a few minutes left on the clock. Grant was helped by the stewards and could make her way back to the pitlane with no damages – but the session was not resumed.
Chloe Chong completed a few more laps compared to FP1 and moved up to eleventh, preceding Megan Gilkes, Jessica Edgar, Maite Caceres and Lola Lovinfosse – the latter with no representative lap time after being hit by countless track limits infractions.
Next up is going to be the two qualifying sessions that will set the grids for race 1 and race 3; Q1 will furthermore set the grid for a shorter reverse grid race 2, where the eighth place driver will score pole position.
Qualifying 1 will go green at 16:25 local time, followed shortly after by Q2 at 16:45.
P1 | Marta GarcÃa | Prema Racing | 1:34.549 | ​ |
P2 | Bianca Bustamante | Prema Racing | 1:35.314 | +0.765 |
P3 | Abbi Pulling | Rodin Carlin | 1:35.601 | +1.052 |
P4 | Hamda Al Qubaisi | MP Motorsport | 1:35.602 | +1.053 |
P5 | Léna Bühler | ART Grand Prix | 1:35.807 | +1.258 |
P6 | Carrie Schreiner | ART Grand Prix | 1:35.887 | +1.338 |
P7 | Amna Al Qubaisi | MP Motorsport | 1:35.891 | +1.342 |
P8 | Nerea Martà | Campos Racing | 1:36.044 | +1.495 |
P9 | Emely de Heus | MP Motorsport | 1:36.134 | +1.585 |
P10 | Chloe Grant | ART Grand Prix | 1:36.237 | +1.688 |
P11 | Chloe Chong | Prema Racing | 1:36.416 | +1.867 |
P12 | Megan Gilkes | Rodin Carlin | 1:37.444 | +2.895 |
P13 | Jessica Edgar | Rodin Carlin | 1:37.922 | +3.373 |
P14 | Maite Caceres | Campos Racing | 1:43.702 | +9.153 |
P15 | Lola Lovinfosse | Campos Racing | 1:51.253 | +16.704 |