Antonelli fastest in pre-season Formula 4 test at Red Bull Ring

Photo: Formula Scout

Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli set the pace in Italian Formula 4 pre-season testing at the Red Bull Ring this weekend.

The two-day test consisted of four sessions, with the Wednesday afternoon session running significantly shorter than the others.

It was US Racing’s Alex Dunne who initially set the pace on Tuesday morning, his only session of the day before handing the #22 car over to Pedro Perino for the afternoon, and he posted a 1m32.481s lap.

He brought that benchmark down to 1m32.077s, with fellow US Racing driver Marcus Amand send fastest through the first two hours of the day. Antonelli then squeezed himself to the top, setting a 1m32.048s, and soon drivers were breaking into the 1m31s.

Rafael Camara headed Antonelli with 15 minutes to go, but he improved late on to top the session with a 1m32.474s lap to lead a Prema 1-2-3 completed by the recently signed Charlie Wurz. There was a late red flag caused by AS Motorsport’s Giovanni Maschio.

Antonelli went fastest by one thousandth of a second to top the afternoon session, with Wurz 0.125s back in second and Camara third. This time Nikhil Bohra set the early pace for US Racing, before Antonelli came to the fore and improved several times to keep himself in first place. There was also a late red flag in this session.

Wurz started Thursday by bettering Antonelli’s Wednesday pace, topping the morning with a 1m31.461s lap. Camara pipped Antonelli to second place, and Dunne was back in at US Racing and was fourth fastest ahead of Amand and AKM Motorsport’s unnamed driver who all improved on their previous pace.

BVM Racing’s Kim Hwarang was on top for most of the afternoon session, but with 11 minutes to go was usurped by Antonelli and then eventually Wurz and Camara too. Antonelli and Hwarang set their personal bests, which put Antonelli on top of the overall test leaderboard, and Jesse Carrasquedo Jr and Sauber junior Zachary David also went faster for AKM Motorsport.

Fifth fastest in the session was Dunne, ahead of David and Peroni. During the test, Cram Motorsport announced that Georgis Markogiannis will be part of its Italian F4 line-up for a third successive year.

Test results