Laurens van Hoepen was the fastest driver in the only free practice for the fifth round of the 2026 Formula 2 season, held on Friday morning (the 12th) at the Barcelona Circuit in Spain. The Dutch driver for Trident completed nine laps during the session, posting a best time of 1m26.776s.
Roman Bilinski, driving for DAMS, claimed second place, finishing 0.051 seconds off Van Hoepen’s pace. Alexander Dunne, of Rodin Motorsport, completed the session in third on the timesheet, followed by Rafael Villagómez in fourth for Van Amersfoort. Martinius Stenshorne, representing Rodin, completed the top five.
The race leader in the championship, Gabriele Mini, settled for sixth with MP Motorsport, ahead of Brazilian Rafael Câmara in seventh for Invicta Racing. Colton Herta, with Hitech, was eighth, while Nikola Tsolov of Campos Racing ended ninth. Sebastian Montoya of Prema completed the top ten. Emmo Fittipaldi finished nineteenth for AIX Racing.
The session was interrupted by a red flag with twelve minutes remaining. Noel León spun the Campos Racing car and came to a stop on the grass, bringing the session to a halt. The track was cleared with three minutes left to the end of the session that opened the weekend.
Qualifying will take place at 10:55 a.m. to determine the starting grid. The Sprint race is scheduled for Saturday at 9:15 a.m., while the main race will begin at 6:25 a.m. on Sunday.
