Photo: ACI Sport
R-ace GP’s Alex Powell picked up two pole positions in Italian Formula 4 qualifying at Mugello on Friday afternoon.
With a 38-car entry list and a three-race format this weekend, it meant there were two 15-minute qualifying sessions featuring the whole field. The fastest times from Q1 set race one’s grid, the fastest times from Q2 set race two’s grid and drivers’ second-best laptimes from either session was used to form race three’s grid.
Technorace’s Francesco Coppola was the surprise pacesetter early in Q1, setting a 1m53.698s. Jenzer Motorsport’s Bader Al Sulaiti briefly moved ahead, before Coppola returned to the top with a 1m51.593s lap.
That was almost immediately beaten by a 1m50.274s from Maffi Racing’s David Walther, who was on top until six minutes remained when US Racing’s Maxim Rehm broke into the 1m49s.
In rapid succession, Maximilian Popov (Van Amersfoort Racing), Emanuele Olivieri (R-ace) and Powell bettered him and a 1m49.073s stood as the benchmark with five minutes to go.
Powell had a 0.396-second gap at the top, but a minute later he was 0.589s off provisional pole as Prema’s Kean Nakamura Berta lowered the pace to 1m48.484s. US’s Gabrel Gomez came 0.26s shy of that time, and Powell was third ahead of Rehm.
Olivieri got within 0.373s of Nakamura after that, putting him third, and with two minutes left US’s Luka Sammalisto went fifth fastest. Nakamura’s main title rival and team-mate Sebastian Wheldon was 0.575s off his pole time in sixth.
Nakamura however was only ninth fastest in Q2, as the field got even faster. Powell moved to the top in the session’s second half, posting a 1m48.347s that would earn him his first pole in over a year.
Reno Francot, a new addition to PHM Racing’s line-up, was 0.36s slower than Powell but that was enough for second place, and Wheldon was third. Prema’s Newman Chi pipped Gomez to fourth, and Bondarev was sixth.
Most drivers relied on Q2 for their second-best laptimes, including Powell. He earned race three pole by 0.101s over Nakamura, whose laptime came from Q1, and Francot was a further 0.014s off in third.
A Q1 laptime put Gomez in fourth, ahead of Wheldon and Bondarev.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Kean Nakamura Berta Prema 1m48.484s
2 Gabriel Gomez US Racing +0.260s
3 Emanuele Olivieri R-ace GP +0.373s
4 Alex Powell R-ace GP +0.425s
5 Luka Sammalisto US Racing +0.441s
6 Sebastian Wheldon Prema +0.575s
7 Maxim Rehm US Racing +0.629s
8 Salim Hanna Hernandez Prema +0.712s
9 Sasha Bondarev Prema +0.728s
10 Alexander Ruta Van Amersfoort Racing +0.739s
Race 2 grid
1 Powell 1m48.347s
2 Reno Francot PHM Racing +0.360s
3 Wheldon +0.428s
4 Newman Chi Prema +0.581s
5 Gomez +0.587s
6 Bondarev +0.621s
7 Sammalisto +0.757s
8 Dante Vinci Van Amersfoort Racing +0.800s
9 Nakamura +0.862s
10 Hanna +0.867s
Race 3 grid
1 Powell 1m48.737s
2 Nakamura +0.101s
3 Francot +0.115s
4 Gomez +0.172s
5 Wheldon +0.262s
6 Bondarev +0.333s
7 Sammalisto +0.493s
8 Maximilian Popov Van Amersfoort Racing +0.611s
9 Chi +0.613s
10 Hanna +0.619s