Alp Aksoy tops Italian F4 test at Monza for Prema

Photo: WSK Promotion

Alp Hasan Aksoy was quickest for Prema in post-season Italian Formula 4 testing at Monza this week.

His team-mate Sasha Bondarev started the two-day test on top, setting a 1m52.612s in the first session on Tuesday to lead Aksoy by 0.143 seconds and US Racing’s Ary Bansal by 0.56s. Also within a second of the pace were and Niccolo Maccagnani (Prema), Olexander Savinkov (US) and Beco Bernoldi (Prema).

Aksoy lowered the pace to 1m52.309s in session two, leading Bondarev by 0.15s and Maccagnani by 0.386s. This time a second covered the top seven and only four of the 33 drivers (two from Maffi Racing and two from R-ace GP) did not improve.

Savinkov got within 0.119s of Aksoy’s benchmark with the fastest lap of session three. Bondarev and Aksoy failed to improve in second and third, 0.165s and 0.216s behind respectively, with Maccagnani also not setting a personal best in fifth place behind PHM Racing’s Iacopo Martinese.

Tuesday ended with slower laptimes for everyone in session four. Bondarev posted a 1m52.808s to top the timesheet, 0.443s ahead of Maccagnani and 0.633s clear of Aksoy. US’s Ludovico Busso was fourth, followed by Bernoldi, Bansal and Savinkov.

There was only one improver in session five on Wednesday morning: Maffi Racing’s Teodor Borenstein. He went quickest with a 1m53.512s, which lifted him from 19th to 12th in the test’s overall classification.

Busso was just 0.09s behind, with Bansal and Savinkov trailing by 0.122s and 0.15s. A second covered the top nine.

It was even closer competition in session six, which Aksoy topped by 0.028s after setting a 1m53.123s on his penultimate lap. That demoted Savinkov to second, with Busso 0.35s and Bansal 0.374s behind in a top 10 split by a second. Further down the order there were two improvers.

Aksoy led the way again in session seven, posting a 1m53.007s to once again pip Savinkov. There was a gap of 0.057s between them, and 0.1s to Bansal.

Busso was over half a second slower than Aksoy in fourth, ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Thomas Bearman, Trident’s Lyuboslav Ruykov and R-ace’s Kenzo Craigie who was one of two drivers delivering personal bests.

Testing concluded with another Aksoy-topped session. He set a 1m53.456s to be fastest by 0.34s over Bansal and 0.39s over Killion. Trident’s Augustus Toniolo, already confirmed to be racing for the team when its F4 squad starts racing in 2026, was 0.596s off in fourth.

Test results