Photo: Prema
Jack Beeton, Freddie Slater and Alex Powell will start this weekend’s Italian Formula 4 races at Vallelunga from pole position.
Maffi Racing’s Nathanael Berreby was the driver to beat at the start of both qualifying sessions on Saturday morning, and in Q1 the first driver to beat him was US Racing’s Maxim Rehm who set a 1m35.433s to go fastest by 3.515 seconds.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Gustav Jonsson reduced that advantage to 2.067s with his second lap, then Prema’s drivers began to lower the pace. Dion Gowda set a 1m34.656s, Rashid Al Dhaheri posted a 1m34.190s and then Slater set a 1m34.006s. Powell completed a Prema 1-2-3 ahead of US’s Akshay Bohra, then when Rehm finally set his second flying lap he rose back up to third plac.
Cram Motorsport’s debuting Filippo Fioreninto had incidents at turns 11 with AKM Motorsport’s Emanuele Olivieri and at turn one with Jenzer Motorsport’s Enea Frey before the third laps came in and the order was shaken up again.
US driver Beeton went to the top with a 1m33.598s, putting him 0.031s ahead of Slater and 0.231s clear of Al Dhaheri, with Beeton’s team-mate Matheus Ferreira slotting into fourth ahead of Powell, Bohra, Jonsson and R-ace GP’s Luka Sammalisto.
Ferreira gained another spot with his fourth lap, putting him just 0.107s off pole, and VAR’s Hiyu Yamakoshi rose to fourth as Powell was shuffled down to fifth despite improving.
Slater found a 0.002s gain with a three-and-a-half minutes to go, as Gowda went seventh fastest, and there were scant changes in the top 10 after that. Prema’s Tomass Stolcermanis and Kean Nakamura Berta traded 10th place and Bohra moved past team-mate Gianmarco Pradel into ninth after the chequered flag.
Berreby led Q2 almost until the halfway point of the session, when he fell all the way down to 23rd place as his rivals’ second flying laps came in.
Slater set a 1m33.724s to go fastest, leading Bohra by 0.043s, Beeton by 0.201s and Al Dhaheri by 0.238s. Sammalisto and then Powell held fifth place.
On his next lap Slater improved to 1m33.488s, with Stolcermanis 0.121s slower in second. Al Dhaheri improved to stay in fourth, and PHM Racing’s Andrej Petrovic jumped up to sixth. It took a little longer for others to set their third laps, and Ferreira and Yamakoshi went third and fourth fastest with their efforts while Sammalisto and Jonsson improved in seventh and eighth. Powell’s lap came in even later as he pursued clear air, and having dropped to 13th place he then jumped up to second, 0.068s off Slater.
Yamakoshi also got within 0.1s of Slater with just over three minutes to go, and Jenzer’s Ethan Ischer went from 27th to seventh with his fifth lap. Improvements were harder to make on a busy track after that, meaning Slater secured his fourth pole of 2024.
Drivers’ second-best laptimes from the two sessions were used to set race three’s grid, and a 1m33.564s earned Powell pole by 0.06s over Slater, with Yamakoshi and Beeton 0.079s and 0.093s behind and with the top 29 covered by 0.948s.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Jack Beeton US Racing 1m33.598s
2 Freddie Slater Prema +0.029s
3 Matheus Ferreira US Racing +0.107s
4 Hiyu Yamakoshi Van Amersfoort Racing +0.158s
5 Alex Powell Prema +0.220s
6 Rashid Al Dhaheri Prema +0.231s
7 Dion Gowda Prema +0.234s
8 Akshay Bohra US Racing +0.243s
9 Gianmarco Pradel US Racing +0.265s
10 Kean Nakamura Berta Pema +0.313s
Race 2 grid
1 Slater 1m33.488s
2 Powell +0.068s
3 Yamakoshi +0.084s
4 Tomass Stolcermanis Prema +0.121s
5 Ferreira +0.131s
6 Bohra +0.181s
7 Ethan Ischer Jenzer Motorsport +0.241s
8 Pradel +0.267s
9 Al Dhaheri +0.294s
10 Gowda +0.294s
Race 3 grid
1 Powell 1m33.564s
2 Slater +0.060s
3 Yamakoshi +0.079s
4 Beeton +0.093s
5 Ferreira +0.146s
6 Bohra +0.174s
7 Pradel +0.198s
8 Stolcermanis +0.267s
9 Al Dhaheri +0.280s
10 Gowda +0.292s