Alba Larsen set the fastest time of the week on the second day of the F1 ACADEMY in-season test at Circuito de Navarra on Thursday.
The Ferrari-backed driver powered her MP-operated car to a time of 1m46.502s to top the timings on successive morning sessions. Her lap was over four tenths of a second faster than the previous fastest time, set by Natalia Granada on Wednesday afternoon.
Emma Felbermayr set the pace in the afternoon, as her time of 1m46.722s was enough to beat her championship rival Alisha Palmowski by 0.016 seconds.
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Morning session: Larsen sets pace at the start of day two
Ferrari-backed Larsen replicated her form from Wednesday’s morning session to top the timing sheets once again on Thursday morning.
The Dane’s 1m46.502s lap was the new fastest attempt of the three-day test at the time, narrowly beating Felbermayr to top spot by 0.065s. Audi-backed Felbermayr continued her strong showing at the Circuito de Navarra by finishing a third successive session second on the leaderboard.
Larsen had topped the times after the opening 15 minutes with a lap of 1m47.469s, only to improve her own early benchmark three times over the next 10 minutes, knocking more than three tenths off her time.
Championship leader Alisha Palmowski, who had been unable to take part in day one of the test due to travel disruption, took over top spot 35 minutes into the morning session, becoming the first driver into the 1m46s’.
Her stint at the top was short-lived as Nina Gademan improved the target lap by a slim 0.028s, before Larsen returned to the top, smashing Gademan’s effort by 0.420s.
Despite having over two hours remaining of the morning session, Larsen’s lap would not be improved upon. Her opponents would close the margin but not get close enough as Felbermayr just missed out, with Rachel Robertson two tenths back in third.
Palmowski and Gademan completed the top five, ahead of Ella Stevens in sixth. Just over a tenth of a second separated Granada in seventh and Jade Jacquet in 12th, as 17 of the 18 runners were covered by a second.
Afternoon session: Felbermayr narrowly beats championship rival Palmowski
Having set the second-fastest time in the previous three sessions, Felbermayr ended the in-season test at the top of the timings on Thursday afternoon.
The Audi-backed driver set a time of 1m46.722s inside the first hour of the final test session at Circuito de Navarra, with Briton Palmowski’s best effort falling 0.016s short.
Felbermayr set the early pace in the afternoon, briefly losing top spot to McLaren’s Ella Lloyd before immediately reclaiming it. Felbermayr improved upon her best effort at the 20-minute mark with a 1m47.044s lap, but that was beaten by Robertson 20 mins later with a 1m46.851s lap.
Before the first hour was complete, Felbermayr set her fastest time of the session to move 0.129s clear of Robertson, with Palmowski improving to second in the final hour.
That left Robertson to claim third in both Thursday sessions, with Lisa Billard a hundredth of a second further back in fourth. Rodin team-mates Stevens and Lloyd were next up, with Kaylee Countryman securing her best finish of the test in seventh.
Rafaela Ferreira was eighth, ahead of two-time session-topper Larsen and Alpine-backed Gademan – just 0.567s off the pace in 10th. As with in the morning session, 17 of the 18 drivers were covered by a single second.
Photo: F1 Academy Ltd | Parc Fermé