WORLD WRAP: Peroni second on Day 1 of F3 testing

FIA Formula 3 Championship

Tasmanian Alex Peroni has made his return from injury by setting the second fastest time on the first day of FIA Formula 3 pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Peroni (Campos Racing), whose last F3 outing was truncated by a frightening crash at Monza in which he fractured a vertebrae, set a fastest lap 0.016s slower than the outright pace of Devlin DeFrancesco (Trident), who clocked a best of 1:46.844s.

Liam Lawson (Hitech Grand Prix) was 13th fastest for the day’s two sessions combined with the 1:47.653s which he set in the morning, Jack Doohan (HWA Racelab) was 22nd with a 1:48.073s in the afternoon, Calan Williams (Jenzer Motorsport) 25th with a 1:48.263s in the afternoon, and Oscar Piastri (Prema Racing) 26th with a 1:48.270s in the morning.

Two more days of the Bahrain test remain.

FIA Formula 2 Championship

Marcus Armstrong was fifth fastest on the opening day of Formula 2 pre-season testing at Bahrain.

Armstrong was fastest for a period of time in the early stages of the afternoon session, and as high as third when the emphasis moved back to outright pace in the latter 45 minutes.

The Kiwi’s fastest lap was a 1:42.331s in his ART Grand Prix entry, 0.454s off the pace set by Pedro Piquet (Charouz Racing System).

Second through fourth was filled by Nobuharu Matsushita (MP Motorsport), Jehan Daruvala (Carlin), and Roy Nissany (Trident), respectively.

Like F3, testing continues on March 2 and 3 (local time).

Moto2

Remy Gardner has wound up third fastest across the three days of Moto2’s final pre-season test at Qatar’s Losail International Circuit.

The Australian was prominent on each of the latter two days at the circuit which will host this coming weekend’s first rounds of the intermediate and lightweight classes.

Gardner rode his Onexox TKKR SAG Kalex to a personal best of 1:58.985s on Day 2 and 1:58.664s on Day 3.

Jorge Navarro (Beta Tools Speed Up) was fastest on Days 1 and 3 with a 1:59.168s and 1:58.520s respectively, while Jorge Martin (Red Bull KTM Ajo Kalex) set the pace on Day 2 with a 1:58.655s.

As such, the top three for the three days combined was Navarro, from Martin and then Gardner.

Practice for Round 1 of the season begins on March 6 (local time) in Qatar, with a revised scheduled to be put in place after MotoGP action was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Formula E

Nick Cassidy established a new fastest ever lap around the Marrakech street circuit in Formula E’s rookie test, in which he was quickest by almost half a second.

The New Zealander set a best of 1:16.467s in the #2 Virgin Racing entry, to which Sergio Sette Camara was closest with a 1:16.930s in the #7 Dragon car.

Just 0.020s separated them before Cassidy put in his final flyer, which put him 0.625s up on third placed Filipe Albuquerque (DS Techeetah).

Kelvin van der Linde was ninth at 1:17.360s for Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler, and W Series champion Jamie Chadwick 13th at 1:17.721s for Jaguar.

All of the aforementioned drivers set their respective fastest laps in the highest (250kW) power mode.