Akshay Bohra fastest in Italian F4 test at Mugello

Photo: ACI Sport

US Racing’s Akshay Bohra was fastest in Italian Formula 4 pre-season testing at Mugello this week.

He and team-mate Jack Beeton started the test in joint first place, as both set a 1m49.036s in the opening session. Gianmarco Pradel, another US Racing driver, was just 0.008 seconds behind in third place.

CL Motorsport’s Newman Chi was 0.126s back in fourth, and US’s Matheus Ferreira was 0.345s off the pace in fifth. The top 11 were covered by 0.974s.

Pradel lowered the pace to 1m48.476s in session two, going fastest by 0.115s over Bohra and 0.319s over Jenzer Motorsport’s 23. Ferreira was fourth again and improved his pace, but was 0.485s off the new benchmark.

Chi rose to the fore in session three, setting a 1m48.193s to lead Pradel by 0.032s. PHM Racing’s Andrej Petrovic was third fastest, 0.486s back, and US Racing drivers filled the next five positions. Everyone below that was more than a second slower than Chi.

The day concluded with another pace gain from Pradel, who set a 1m48.099s. Beeton was his closest rival in session four and 0.164s behind, then Petrovic and US’s Kabir Anurag were 0.265s and 0.2778s back respectively. Bohra, R-ace GP’s Enzo Yeh, Ferreira and Chi lapped within 0.5s of Pradel’s pace, with 14 drivers in total within a second of him and only eight of the 30 drivers failing to improve.

Wednesday started slightly slower, with Bohra leading the way again and setting a 1m48.399s. He pipped Pradel to top spot by 0.023s, with their team-mate Maxim Rehm a further 0.086s behind in third. Yeh skipped the day’s opening session.

The pace broke into the 1m47s in the next session, at least for Bohra, as he set a 1m47.810s that would not be beaten. Beeton was second fastest with a 1m48.083s, and Pradel completed an all-US top three with a 1m48.198s. PHM’s Davide Larini was absent from the action.

Session seven was significantly slower, with Chi the only driver to lap sub-1m49s. His 1m48.355s effort put him 0.829s clear of Bohra, with a big gap of 1.281s to Larini in third. However the field was close below that, with a second splitting third and 18th.

The only driver to improve their pace was Sainteloc Racing’s Matteo Quintarelli, who was eighth fastest in the session.

Eight drivers set personal bests in the last session, which was topped by Bohra with a 1m47.942s. Ferreira was second in-session and fifth overall with a 1m47.252s, and Beeton was third fastest. The top 14 were covered by 0.898s, and the driver of Jenzer Motorsport’s #22 car was absent.

Jenzer was expecting to run three or four cars in the F4 Central European Zone championship this year, and during the Mugello test announced that for the Balaton Park season opener it will field Ethan Ischer, Max Karhan (a full-season signing), Andrija Kostic, Oscar Wurz (also a full-season signing) and Shimo Zhang.

Test results