Abu Dhabi F2 testing: Deletraz fastest again from Ferrari juniors
Louis Deletraz set a last-gasp fastest time to top a second consecutive day of Formula 2 post-season testing in Abu Dhabi
After pipping Marcus Armstrong to the top spot on Thursday, Deletraz edged another Ferrari junior Robert Shwartzman on Friday by setting a 1m50.124s with five minutes to go in the afternoon session.
Shwartzman had overhauled Deletraz by just over a hundredth of a second a few minutes earlier, and wound up 0.052 seconds adrift at the chequered flag.
None of the other participating drivers came close to the pair in the afternoon, meaning Armstrong's benchmark from the morning - a 1m50.436s - proved good enough for third overall.
Fellow Ferrari junior Callum Ilott was 0.025s slower than Armstrong and exactly level with Deletraz heading into the midday break, and though he posted no representative single-lap effort in the afternoon, his earlier time sealed fourth place overall.
Nikita Mazepin (Carlin) was third fastest in the afternoon and fifth overall on the strength of his morning time, narrowly ahead of Virtuosi's Guanyu Zhou and MP Motorsport's Ralph Boschung.
Pedro Piquet, partnering Deletraz at Charouz, was fourth fastest after the break and made up the top eight on the day.
DAMS's new ex-Red Bull junior recruit Dan Ticktum, Boschung's MP stablemate Felipe Drugovich, Renault-backed ART rookie Christian Lundgaard and Prema's other Ferrari protege Mick Schumacher were the only other drivers to lap below the 1m51s mark.
Mazepin and Ticktum caused red-flag stoppages by coming to a halt on track before and after the midday break respectively.
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