Bondarev leads new Prema signing Aksoy in Italian F4 test at Imola

Photo: WSK Promotion

Sasha Bondarev led Alp Hasan Aksoy in a Prema one-two at this week’s post-season Italian Formula 4 test at Imola.

The 37-car entry list was split into four groups for the four-day test, with two contesting the first two days and two contesting days three and four.

Aksoy was pipped to overall top spot by 0.066 seconds, and entered the test after signing with Prema to race in Italian F4, E4 and at least one other championship next year.

“I’m excited to join Prema for 2026,” said the 15-year-old Turk. “It’s going to be my first season in F4 and I’m already looking forward to it. Let’s see how it goes!”

He steps up to single-seaters after two years in senior karting racing OK karts, in which he has come fourth in WSK’s Euro Series, 16th in the CIK-FIA World championship and WSK’s Super Master Series, 18th in WSK’s Final Cup, 23rd in its Champions Cup and 27th in the Champions of the Future series. He raced for Prema’s karting squad in 2025.

Prema founder Angelo Rosin commented: “Aksoy has great potential and we are very impressed by how he adapted to the car coming from karting, which is obviously fundamentally different. He already showed his skills with our karting team, and we think he will make further progress from now on as he continues the journey.”

At Imola the track started off cold, and therefore damp, each day and the fastest laps came in the afternoon each time.

US Racing’s Arjen Kraling set the day one pace, a 1m50.430s putting him 0.139s ahead of team-mate Noah Killion. Maffi Racing’s Teodor Borenstein was third fastest, 1.28s off the pace.

Killion lowered the pace to 1m49.285s in session six for group B the next day, edging team-mate Olexander Savinkov by 0.005s. Trident’s August Toniolo was faster in group A, posting a 1m48.369s to lead Technorace’s Antonio Errigo by 0.238s.

Laptimes improved significantly later in the day, and Trident’s Lyuboslav Ruykov concluded day with a 1m47.62s that made him fastest by 0.041s over Killion and 0.082s over Toniolio.

Over the next two days, Bondarev topped six of group D’s eight sessions but PHM Racing’s Iacopo Martinese was quickest in the first. The driver of Cram Motorsport’s #16 car, who contested Thursday only, was quickest in group C’s first four sessions and was only 0.128s slower than Bondarev’s benchmark. In third was the driver of US’s #46 car, who was 0.703s behind.

Aksoy joined the action on Friday, and was closest to Bondarev in their final session when the test’s fastest laps were set. Bondarev bettered Ruykov’s benchmark by 0.108s, Cram’s starring driver slotted into ninth overall, while US’s #46 and #29 drivers were the only others aside from Aksoy to get within a second of Bondarev once the track had dried.

Test results