After a difficult round in Monaco, Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen kicked off the fifth round of the 2026 F2 season in Barcelona in strong fashion, as the Dutchman topped Free Practice ahead of Qualifying later today. The Dutchman’s benchmark of a 1:26.776 was enough for the top spot, while Roman Bilinski and Alex Dunne rounded out the top three.
Reflecting on the session, van Hoepen explained that managing tyres throughout a push lap was crucial, as conditions were completely different from those the 2026 F2 grid had experienced during pre-season testing in February.
“It was a good session. Of course, very little laps as always in Barcelona, the first push lap matters the most because that’s when the tyres are still intact.”, he said.
“The grip is the best in the first push lap and I think we did a good job managing the first push. It was very warm, very different than testing, of course.”
“When you’re testing in February, the track is much cooler. Now it’s a lot warmer and you definitely feel that in the grip and the performance of everything, basically.”
Focus shifts to Qualifying and converting promising pace into results
The 20 year-old noted that he felt comfortable in the car. While he admitted that the team still needs to fine-tune the car ahead of Qualifying later today, van Hoepen targets a repeat of his strong performance and takes encouraging signs from the promising start to the weekend.
“The car felt good. I think we still have some fine-tuning to do, but overall good. I think we have to work hard now to make sure that we can do the same in Qualifying.”
He added: “Qualifying is going to be a different session in terms of how it goes, just because you have the option tyre now, so the Soft instead of the Hard.”
“Nobody will have driven on it. So, it will be a bit of a different session, but that’s why we have to work now. But, I think it’s a good start, and if we just keep up the work, it should be good.”
