Maximilian Gunther set the fastest lap at Sakhir, Bahrain on the final day of the FIA Formula 2 Championship pre-season test. With this, he beat Charouz Racing System’s Louis Delétraz and ART Grand Prix’s George Russell with a 1:42.756 set in the morning.
On the previous afternoons, Gunther had been set back due to a lack of running. But this lead makes it up for it all as he led the opening stages.
Delétraz, stayed three seconds behind Gunther throughout the rest of the session. Then ART Grand Prix’s George Russell completed the top three. Russell beat his ART Grand Prix team-mate Jack Aitken, Renault's reserve F1 driver for 2018, who took fourth place.
Trident’s Arjun Maini, who had held the fastest lap the day before, leapfrogged Gunther for a short time, but the German driver went forward in the last minutes of the 1m42s, ending on top in the first hour.
Honda driver Tadasuke Makino and Maini were in the fight with Sergio Sette Camara, who finally took the fifth place. Maini fell back to seventh even when he jostled with Gunther for the top spot.
Ferrari junior Antonio Fuoco and McLaren's Lando Norris ended up 11th and 12th respectively.
Regarding red flags, Aitken caused one when he stopped at Turn 8 during the morning running. Then the rest of the red flags were earned by Artem Markelov, last year's F2 runner-up, and Ralph Boschung. They ended in 13th and 14th. Prema Racing had a rather low representation from their only runner, Nyck de Vries, who ended 15th.
Roy Nissany and Roberto Merhi, ran for Campos and MP Motorsport again, ended up in 17th and 18th place.
The F2's opening round officially began at Bahrain again, on the 6th through 8th of May for the first races of the year.
