Photo: ACI Sport
US Racing’s Akshay Bohra continued where he left off in Friday’s free practice by dominating qualifying for the opening round of the Euro 4 championship at Mugello.
Bohra was quickest in both sessions, with his second-fastest time from Q2 giving him pole for race three as well.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi finished second in both sessions to line up alongside Bohra on the front row for the first two races. Surprisingly, however, he could only post the 20th-fastest second best time over the two sessions, giving him plenty to do in Sunday’s third race.
The opening session got off to a slow start with nobody venturing out for the first four minutes before Jenzer Motorsport’s Enea Frey finally left his garage with the remaining 26 cars following him out.
Bohra immediately jumped to the top of the times, his lap of 1m48.447s putting him 0.226s clear of Prema’s Freddie Slater as the field completed its first flying laps.
Bohra improved next time around, with Prema’s Kean Nakamura Berta moving up to second, ahead of his team-mates Rashid Al Dhaheri and Slater.
Bohra went faster still by 0.073s on his fifth and final lap to make sure of his pole position for the opening race, although he needed to, as the VAR pair of Yamakoshi and Gustav Jonsson made late improvements to go second and third, the Japanese driver crossing the line just 0.031s down on Bohra.
None of the Prema trio was able to improve their time, despite each setting a personal best in S1, leaving them in fourth, fifth and sixth. Having been an early challenger to team-mate Bohra, Jack Beeton ended the session in seventh.
With morning track temperatures creeping upwards, drivers again sat out the first third of the second session with Beeton leading the field out with 10 minutes remaining.
Yamakoshi set the first sub-1m50s time, although as others completed their third laps he dropped to seventh, with US Racing’s Maxim Rehm going fastest, before he was pushed back by a time of 1m47.993s from Al Dhaheri.
Inside the final two minutes, it was PHM Racing’s Davide Larini who moved to the front by 0.057s, although Al Dhaheri quickly reasserted himself at the top of the times.
However, in the closing seconds Bohra put in a lap of 1m47.233s to go fastest, with Yamakoshi moving into second, 0.241s adrift.
Bohra had managed to get in an extra lap and looked to be on course to go faster still, 0.014s up on his own best after S3, but was unable to improve, his previous lap being good enough to secure pole for race two, although the late effort ensured pole for race three.
Al Dhaheri held onto third ahead of his Prema team-mate Slater, with Beeton in fifth, followed by Nakamura Berta and Prema’s Tomass Stolcermanis.
Jonsson took eighth from Rehm, the two setting identical times.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Akshay Bohra US Racing 1,47.641s
2 Hiyu Yamakoshi Van Amersfoort Racing +0.031s
3 Gustav Jonsson Van Amersfoort Racing +0.273s
4 Kean Nakamura Berta Prema +0.329s
5 Rashid Al Dhaheri Prema +0.384s
6 Freddie Slater Prema +423s
7 Jack Beeton US Racing +0.640s
8 Dion Gowda Prema +0.652s
9 Maxim Rehm US Racing +0.656s
10 Gianmarco Pradel US Racing +0.753s
Race 2 grid
1 Bohra 1m47.233s
2 Yamakoshi +0.214s
3 Al Dhaheri +0.262s
4 Slater +0.333s
5 Beeton +0.546s
6 Nakamura Berta +0.557s
7 Tomass Stolcermanis Prema +0.596s
8 Jonsson +0.681s
9 Maxim Rehm US Racing +0.681s
10 Davide Larini PHM Racing +0.703s
Race 3 grid
1 Bohra 1m47.267s
2 Al Dhaheri +0.313s
3 Slater +0.397s
4 Nakamura Berta +0.578s
5 Beeton +0.751s
6 Ethan Ischer Jenzer Motorsport +0.772s
7 Stolcermanis +0.801s
8 Alex Powell Prema +0.813s
9 Gowda +0.821s
10 Pradel +0.844s