Photo: ACI Sport
Luka Sammalisto led a US Racing 1-2-3-4 in Italian Formula 4’s pre-event test day at Imola.
The day was split into two sessions lasting five minutes short of two hours each, and in the first it was Jenzer Motorsport’s Enea Frey who set the pace with a late lap.
R-ace GP’s Alex Powell was fastest at first, then Sammalisto and team-mates Kabir Anurag, Maxim Rehm and Andrija Kostic all spent time at the top as laptimes improved until a representative pace was set.
Sammalist led the way with a 1m48.911s when the first red flag interruption occurred, then there was another before anyone was able to beat him.
Following the restart, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Maximilian Popov set new benchmarks in two successive laps, bringing the time to beat down to 1m47.517s.
Sammalisto responded to snatch back first place by 0.06 seconds, then 20 minutes later found more pace and improved twice to 1m47.282s.
That benchmark only stood for 16s before Prema’s Sasha Bondarev beat him by 0.07s, and a few minutes later R-ace’s Emanuele Olivieri scraped ahead by 0.026s.
Kean Nakamura Berta was the next driver to the top, with two successive fastest laps and posting a 1m47.106s that went unbeaten for over 28 minutes before Frey timed it right with a 1m47.032s.
Popov got within 0.032s of that before the finish, Oliveri improved to be 0.117s behind in fourth, and Bondarev and Sammalisto did the same in fifth and sixth. A second covered the top 25.
PHM Racing’s Reno Francot started session two as fastest, and was first into the 1m47s in the afternoon. Nakamura lowered the pace by 0.578s, then his team-mates moved ahead.
Newman Chi set a 1m47.06s, and Salim Hanna Hernandez lapped in 1m46.991s to go quickest overall in testing before the first of the session’s two red flag periods began. Between the stoppages, US’s drivers went on a run of personal bests that brought Sammalisto and then team-mates Gabriel Gomez and Kabir Anurag to the top.
Anurag’s 1m46.811s stood as the fastest lap for nearly half an hour, with Sammalisto eventually reclaiming first place by 0.108s. A few minutes later Anurag went fastest again by 0.076s, but then Sammalisto outdid him by 0.199s and his 1m46.428s would not be bettered in the final 45 minutes.
Gomez and Andrija Kostic were third and fourth, Bondarev was best-of-the-rest in fifth, and Hanna and Popov were matched on pace behind him.
Only three drivers failed to improve on their session one times, with Jenzer’s Artem Severiukhin the highest placed of those in 18th overall.
Test results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luka Sammalisto | US Racing | 1m46.428s | 66 |
| 2 | Kabir Anurag | US Racing | +0.199s | 58 |
| 3 | Gabriel Gomez | US Racing | +0.286s | 60 |
| 4 | Andrija Kostic | US Racing | +0.344s | 61 |
| 5 | Sasha Bondarev | Prema | +0.417s | 69 |
| 6 | Salim Hanna Hernandez | Prema | +0.424s | 66 |
| 7 | Maximilian Popov | Van Amersfoort | +0.424s | 58 |
| 8 | Maxim Rehm | US Racing | +0.454s | 58 |
| 9 | Kean Nakamura Berta | Prema | +0.497s | 63 |
| 10 | Reno Francot | PHM Racing | +0.523s | 70 |
| 11 | Newman Chi | Prema | +0.565s | 60 |
| 12 | Enea Frey | Jenzer Motorsport | +0.579s | 55 |
| 13 | Bart Harrison | Jenzer Motorsport | +0.598s | 52 |
| 14 | Emanuele Olivieri | R-ace GP | +0.602s | 70 |
| 15 | Andrea Dupe | Prema | +0.657s | 64 |
| 16 | Elia Weiss | Cram Motorsport | +0.699s | 65 |
| 17 | Sebastian Wheldon | Prema | +0.795s | 65 |
| 18 | Artem Severiukhin | Jenzer Motorsport | +0.868s | 52 |
| 19 | David Cosma Cristofor | PHM Racing | +0.895s | 67 |
| 20 | Dante Vinci | Van Amersfoort Racing | +0.939s | 51 |
| 21 | Luca Viisoreanu | Real Racing Team | +1.039s | 70 |
| 22 | Bader Al Sulaiti | Jenzer Motorsport | +1.072s | 58 |
| 23 | Alex Powell | R-ace GP | +1.104s | 66 |
| 24 | Teo Schropp | Jenzer Motorsport | +1.131s | 55 |
| 25 | Alexander Savinkov | R-ace GP | +1.188s | 68 |
| 26 | David Walther | Maffi Racing | +1.252s | 47 |
| 27 | Alexander Ruta | Van Amersfoort Racing | +1.292s | 56 |
| 28 | Ludovico Busso | Viola Formula Racing | +1.368s | 77 |
| 29 | Guy Albag | R-ace GP | +1.424s | 74 |
| 30 | Emily Cotty | R-ace GP | +1.430s | 67 |
| 31 | Payton Westcott | Van Amersfoort Racing | +1.473s | 60 |
| 32 | Javier Herrera | Jenzer Motorsport | +1.500s | 48 |
| 33 | Marcus Saeter | Van Amersfoort Racing | +1.622s | 54 |
| 34 | Kirill Kutskov | Maffi Racing | +1.701s | 54 |
| 35 | Arthur Lorimier | Viola Formula Racing | +1.930s | 66 |
| 36 | Francesco Coppola | Technorace | +1.959s | 71 |
| 37 | Phil Colin Strenge | AS Motorsport | +1.980s | 42 |
| 38 | Nathanael Berreby | Maffi Racing | +2.241s | 59 |
| 39 | Kornelia Olkucka | Maffi Racing | +3.621s | 77 |