Dunne fastest in Italian F4 practice, two new names join grid

Photo: ACI Sport

US Racing’s Alex Dunne set the pace in the first Italian Formula 4 free practice session at Mugello on Thursday afternoon.

Initially it was AKM Motorsport’s drivers that set the pace with Ruiqu Liu setting an early benchmark which team-mate Valerio Rinicella improved on three times to keep himself at the top of the timesheet.

BVM Racing’s Alfio Spina was the first non-AKM driver to go quickest, setting a 1m50.111s lap. He was only in first place for 26 seconds before US Racing’s Marcus Amand crossed the line and became the first driver to lap sub-1m50s.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli shaved three tenths of a second off Amand’s benchmark as he completed his next lap, then Dunne went four tenths up on Antonelli half a minute after.

Dunne stayed on top until the end of the session, improving two more times to end with a best effort of 1m48.500s.

There was a red flag period during the session when PHM Racing’s Viktoria Blokhina went off into the gravel.

At the very end of FP1, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Martinius Stenshorne and Antonelli jumped up to second and third, shuffling Arvid Lindblad (VAR) and Kacper Sztuka (US) down to fourth and fifth.

Returning to the grid this weekend with Prema is McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu, while US Racing’s line-up changes with Zachary David not present and Ginetta Junior driver Akshay Bohra making his F4 debut in his place.

Monlau Motorsport’s line-up expands to three cars with NACAM F4 race-winner Jesse Carrasquedo Jr joining.

Free practice results