Beeton beats Nakamura to top spot at Barcelona in Italian F4 practice

Photo: ACI Sport

US Racing’s Jack Beeton was fastest by just 0.041 seconds in Italian Formula 4 practice at Barcelona on Friday.

He was only fifth fastest in FP1, 0.725s off the pace, but in the quicker afternoon session came to the fore as a second covered the top 20.

Cram Motorsport’s Kai Daryanani began the day as the quickest driver on track, before US duo Akshay Bohra and Gianmarco Pradel dropped down into the 1m43s.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi was first to drop into the 1m42s, but held top spot for less than a minute before Prema’s Freddie Slater beat him by 0.106s.

Beeton was in Slater’s slipstream and pipped him by 0.061s, but Slater responded on his next lap to take back first place with a 1m42.591s lap.

Slater then began trading fastest laps with a different Australian, as Pradel twice usurpsed him. But on his final lap Slater regained the upper hand, breaking into the 1m41s to go 0.269s clear at the top. Pradel was unable to improve on his final lap, while team-mate Bohra did to sit 0.439s behind in third.

Maxim Rehm and Beeton meant US’s drivers occupied four of the top five places, with Slater’s team-mates Kean Nakamura Berta and Alex Powell in sixth and seventh.

FP2 had a quicker beginning, as Jenzer Motorsport’s Reno Francot, Beeton, Pradel and then VAR’s Lin Hodenius topped the times and were lapping in the 1m42s just six minutes in.

Slater beat Hodenius’s benchmark by 0.059s, but the latter was able to reclaim first place by 0.044s and then improve by a further 0.022s two laps later. That kept him on top for 17 minutes, before another surprise name hit the top in Real Racing Team’s Luca Viisoreanu.

His 1m42.156s stood as the session’s best only for 12s as VAR’s Gustav Jonsson then set a 1m41.719s to beat Slater’s FP1 time.

Pradel skimmed ahead by 0.025s not long after, and half a minute after him Beeton set an unbeatable 1m41.148s.

Drivers still improved their pace in the remaining minutes, with Nakamura getting closest to Beeton. Yamakoshi was 0.134s behind in third, Slater just a further 0.022s back in fourth and Bohra rounded out the top five.

Viisoreanu ended up down in 21st, 1.008s slower than Beeton, and VAR’s Andrija Kostic had all his laptimes in FP2 deleted for causing red flags.

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