Latifi tops second day of Bahrain F2 test

Having led GP2's post-season Abu Dhabi test last year, the Canadian returned to the top spot of the classification on Thursday with a 1m40.541s lap of the Bahrain International Circuit.

Latifi, who served as Renault F1 test driver last year, posted his benchmark just after the midway point in the morning session, as he jumped ahead of Russian Time pair Luca Ghiotto and Artem Markelov.

MP's Jordan King was fourth, just 0.001s ahead of Prema's Wednesday pacesetter Charles Leclerc.

Also dipping into the 1m40s margin were Arden's Norman Nato, who had topped the first test in Barcelona, and ART's Alexander Albon, with Albon's teammate Nobuharu Matsushita and DAMS driver Oliver Rowland following close in eighth and ninth.

McLaren protege Nyck de Vries (Rapax) headed Sergio Sette Camara (MP Motorsport) by 0.06s the afternoon session, but the Dutchman's 1m41.212s lap was only enough for 10th overall.

Sette Camara subsequently had his best lap from the afternoon deleted due to his car being underweight, but his morning lap was good enough to keep him in 11th.

The two drivers occupying seats that are not yet assigned for the season – Trident's Sergio Canamasas and Campos newcomer Raoul Hyman – were 17th and 19th respectively.

Day 2 results

Pos.	Driver	Team	AM	PM
1	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	1:40.541	1:44.354
2	Luca Ghiotto	Russian Time	1:40.678	1:47.325
3	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	1:40.702	1:45.705
4	Jordan King	MP Motorsport	1:40.884	1:45.191
5	Charles Leclerc	Prema Racing	1:40.885	1:41.689
6	Norman Nato	Pertamina Arden	1:40.909	1:47.379
7	Alexander Albon	ART Grand Prix	1:40.927	1:47.050
8	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix	1:41.057	1:46.607
9	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	1:41.156	1:44.437
10	Nyck de Vries	Rapax	1:41.568	1:41.212
11	Sergio Sette Camara	MP Motorsport	1:41.351
12	Johnny Cecotto Jr.	Rapax	1:41.371	1:41.833
13	Antonio Fuoco	Prema Racing	1:41.398	1:41.957
14	Louis Deletraz	Racing Engineering	1:41.463	1:44.415
15	Gustav Malja	Racing Engineering	1:42.347	1:41.546
16	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1:41.984	1:43.171
17	Sergio Canamasas	Trident	1:42.042	1:42.197
18	Sean Gelael	Pertamina Arden	1:42.249	1:47.020
19	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	1:42.598	1:45.008
20	Nabil Jeffri	Trident	1:42.973	1:44.258