Formula 3 graduate 𓄧David Beckmann caught the headlines on the oꦉpening day of Formula 2 testing as he set the fastest time of the day in the afternoon session.

Beckmannౠ’s 1m42.844s was enough to beat Dan Ticktum’s top time from this morning by just under 0.2s.

Beckman’s fastest lap was still 1.4s slower than Callum Ilott’s pole time from 2020, indicating track conditions were still far f🍸rom their best. 🐽;

He makes the step up from F3 after two seasons and wi🌸ll drive for the Charouz Racing Syste🎶m in 2021.

Ticktum’s 1m43.021s from the morning session w♈asn’t beaten by anyone else with Christian Lundgaard and Theo Pourchaire the only drivers to get within half a second of the Briton - both🏅 drivers setting their times in the afternoon.

After a year with DAMS, Ticktum has made the switch to Carlin in pursuit of title glory and looked to🐎 be on the pace straight away.

Felipe Drugovich was just over a second off in the lead UNI-Virtuosi as he ended th😼e afternoon session fourth fastes💯t. 

Juri Vips ende🅺d the afternoon in fifth, narrowꦑly edging out Oscar Piastri for sixth.

Next up was Marino Sato and Liam Lawson in seventh and eighth🔯.

Lawson enjoyed a strong morning session in the Hitech GP, ending it in se𓆉cond but couldn’t repeat that in the day’s second session.

Bent Viscaal and Guanyu Zhou completed 🌟the top ten. 

Title favourite Robert Shwartzman didn’t complete many notable laps, setting just 25 overall throughout th𒊎e day.

Jehan Daruvala in the second Carlin enjoyed a strong start to the day as he was third in the mꦓorning but struggled to put any laps on the board come the afternoon with just six to his name.