da Costa keeps BMW on top into second morning

Antonio Felix da Costa topped the times in the morning session of the second day of pre-season testing, continuing BMW’s strong form from yesterday where Alexander Sims headed both sessions.

A relatively uneventful three hours saw lap times tumble further from the opening day, with da Costa becoming the first driver of the week to go under the 1:17s mark as he posted a 1:16.977s, four tenths of a second ahead of reigning champions Jean-Eric Vergne in second, while Jerome d’Ambrosio put his Mahindra third fastest ahead of Lucas di Grassi and Felipe Massa.

Massa’s team-mate Edoardo Mortara spent much of the session confined to the pit lane with technical issues, but eventually emerged from his garage and posted the sixth fastest time.

Only 21 drivers participated in the morning session, with the ongoing rumours surrounding Alexander Albon’s potential move to Scuderia Toro Rosso in Formula 1 leaving only Sebastien Buemi to conduct Nissan’s running. Oliver Rowland is present at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, and it is believed that he has had a seat fitting with the team and will be in the car either this afternoon or on Friday.

Today also saw the first laps in Formula E for Formula 2 driver Antonio Fuoco, who is sharing driving duties in the #6 Dragon Racing car with Maximilian Günther. The Italian circulated in a time of 1:18.778s, which was good enough for P17 ahead of Gary Paffett, Sam Bird, Nelson Piquet Jr and Buemi.

The full times from the morning session can be found here.