Andres Cardenas quickest in Spanish F4’s pre-event test at Estoril

Photo: Andres Cardenas

Campos Racing’s Andres Cardenas was the pace-setter in Spanish Formula 4’s pre-event test day at Estoril.

The first of the day’s four sessions was topped by MP Motorsport’s Keanu Al Azhari, a 1m39.288s putting him just 0.013 seconds ahead of Cardenas.

There was a mix of drivers who were able to improve late on along with those who found their peak pace earlier in the session, with Al Azhari’s fastest lap coming on the 11th of 21 laps of the track he did.

His team-mate Valerio Rinicella was 0.051s behind in third, and just 0.001s split him and Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael in fourth. Christian Ho, another of Campos’s drivers, completed a top five covered by 0.059s and the top 26 were spread by 0.946s.

The pace improved slightly in session two, as Ho moved to the top of the day’s combined timesheet with a 1m39.111s laptime.

Tecnicar Motorsport’s Hiyu Yamakoshu was fastest when the first red flag stoppage occurred a few minutes in due to Flavio Olivieri stopping in the second sector. When the session eventually resumed, Rinicella lowered the pace to 1m40.203s. That only put him on top for two minutes before MP’s Pedro Clerot set a 1m39.501s.

His team-mate Alvise Rodella got within 0.006s of him, then Jeronimo Berrio went the top by 0.028s over Valentin Kluss and 0.048s over Al Azhari with a 1m39.415s lap.

Kluss moved ahead by 0.048s on his next lap just before red flags waved again as GRS’s Isaac Barashi struck trouble at turn four. The session resumed with 15 minutes left on the clock, and Kluss was not beaten until Campos’s Matteo De Palo set a 1m39.254s with eight minutes to go.

That was then beaten by Cardenas and Jesse Carrasquedo, and later Ho set the session’s benchmark which was 0.029s faster than Cardenas’s time. Cardenas did not get a chance to respond as session-ending red flags appeared due to Fernando Barrichello having an issue at turn three.

A 1m39.419s from De Palo was the benchmark time a third of the way into session three, but going into the second half it was Cardenas on top with a 1m39.076s – the day’s fastest lap.

Ho was 0.187s behind in second when red flags waved due to Carrasquedo striking trouble at turn three, and there was no change to the top seven places after the restart. Noah Stromsted was third fastest, and one of five to set their fastest lap in session three.

There were red flags before anyone set a laptime in session four, and eventually action got going with Ricardo Gracia setting the pace. Al Azhari then moved ahead, staying there until his 1m39.193s lap was deleted with a few minutes to go. That promoted Rinicella to the top, by 0.132s over Al Azhari. Rinicella, Gracia, who was fourth fastest, and Kai Daryanani were the only two drivers to improve in that session. Meanwhile Al Azhari was among the six who failed to imrove after session one.

Sebastian Murray (Sainteloc) and Valentin Kluss (MP) were new additions to the Spanish F4 paddock.

Pre-event test results