Trident’s Antonio Fuoco quickest overall in Yas Marina

Trident tester and Ferrari Academy Driver Antonio Fuoco was quickest overall on day two of post-season testing at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. His best laptime of 1:55.135 was 0.058s faster than Arden International’s Jake Dennis in the morning session. Jack Aitken also from Arden, posted the fastest time of the afternoon session with 1:55.164.

There were several new faces to the driver line-up for day two of testing: Nyck De Vries (NED) and Alex Albon (THA) came in at ART Grand Prix, along with Rahul Raj Mayer joining Campos Racing.

There was an early red flag after the aforementioned Mayer spun at Turn 4. Once the action resumed, the Trident pair of Kevin Joerg and Fuoco led the way. There was a second stoppage in proceedings after Jenzer Motorsport’s Antoni Ptak made contact with the Tech-Pro barrier at Turn 19. The Polish driver returned to the pitlane and the track went live.

It was a battle of the Trident testers with Fuoco taking P1 from Joerg. Dennis shot up to second but Joerg returned to the top spot and was first to dip into the 1m55’s. There was another short interruption to the session when Campos Racing’s Konstantin Tereshchenko stopped at Turn 9.

When the track went green; Dennis and Leclerc – the Monegasque driver making the switch to Arden from ART GP for day two – lit up the timing screens to hold a one-two. Fuoco found some more pace to return to the head of the timesheet by three tenths and improved on his next lap to find another tenth’s advantage.

At the chequered flag, Fuoco finished on top ahead of Dennis, Leclerc, Matevos Isaakyan (Koiranen GP), Aitken, Jake Hughes (Status Grand Prix), Joerg, Matthew Parry (Koiranen GP), Nirei Fukuzumi (ART Grand Prix) and Steijn Schothorst.

Dennis set the pace early on in the afternoon session before fellow Arden tester Hughes grabbed P1. Albon rose up the order to second before fastest driver from this morning, Fuoco, topped the timesheet. The Italian was first to break into the 1m55’s. There was a short red flag period when Schothorst stopped at Turn 7.

Dennis reclaimed his place at the head of the timings with less than 20 minutes to go, lapping a tenth faster than Fuoco. But Aitken improved too, and claimed P1 by 0.187s. Shortly after, Will Palmer (Status Grand Prix) made contact with the barrier and thus the session was red flagged and not re-started with less than five minutes remaining on the clock.

The top ten were as follows: Aitken, Dennis, Fuoco, Joerg, Hughes, Leclerc, Albon, Parry, Tatiana Calderon (Status Grand Prix), Leonardo Pulcini (Jenzer Motorsport).

The third and final day of testing will run from 09.00 – 11.30 // and 15:00 – 17:30 local times (GMT+4)