Photo: Spanish F4
Thomas Strauven continued his record of grabbing two poles at every Spanish Formula 4 round this season at Algarve.
Before qualifying on Saturday was free practice three, which highlighted how close the fight for pole was going to be.
Tecnicar Motorsport’s Andrej Petrovic was the first driver into the 1m46s in that session, then was quickly beaten by Rodin Motorsport’s Nathan Tye and later MP Motorsport’s Rene Lammers.
His 1m45.918s benchmark stood for 13 minutes before Tye moved back ahead by 0.013 seconds, then Campos Racing’s Matus Ryba and Lammers lapped in the 1m45.6s.
Campos’s Miguel Costa bettered Lammers by 0.038s with a 1m45.599s lap, which team-mate Vivek Kanthan later beat by 0.081s. The final word would go to Strauven, another Campos driver, who set a 1m45.298s before pitting to end his first run.
His team-mate Jan Przyrowski got within 0.046s of his pace and Lammers was just 0.056s off the top, while MP’s Juan Cota beat Kanthan to fourth by 0.015s. Half a second split the top 10.
Drivex School’s Gino Trappa laid down a 1m47.419s benchmark early in qualifying, which Tecnicar’s Sacha Van’t Pad Bosch beat six minutes in. At that point less than a third of the field had set laptimes.
Petrovic lowered the pace to 1m45.778s, leading Trappa by 0.017s and Van’t Pad Bosch by 0.436s.
TC Racing’s Alfio Spina set a 1m45.917s to move into third a minute later, and at the nine-minute mark Drivex’s Christopher Feghali went fastest by 0.055s. There were still six drivers who had completed no laps at this point.
Feghali’s team-mate Filippo Fiorentino jumped up to fifth shortly after, and TC’s Santnio Panetta went sixth fastest.
As the second half of the 20-minute session began, Eyckmans lapped just 0.006s shy of Feghali’s benchmark then Strauven set a 1m45.063s to go quickest by 0.642s over team-mate Noah Monteiro.
Strauven’s advantage was reduced to 0.498s by Feghali, then to 0.279s by Przyrowski with eight minutes to go. Monteiro and Eyckmans improved to 1m45.417s and 1m45.462s in third and fourth at the same time, and on his next lap Przyrowski got within 0.014s of Strauven’s pole time.
The battle for pole was settled then, and Eyckmans was demoted to fifth by a 1m45.422s from team-mate Niklas Schaufler with four minutes remaining of qualifying before improving to 1m45.265s to move back up to third in the final 90s of the session.
MP’s drivers remained on track to the end while Campos’s quickest names pitted, and Q1 concluded with half a second splitting the top eight and a second covering the top 18. TC’s Santiago Baztarrica was the only driver in the end without a laptime to his name.
Drivers’ second-best efforts set race two’s grid, and Strauven’s penultimate lap – a 1m45.146s – earned him pole by 0.134s over Przyrowski. Eyckmans was 0.202s off pole in third, and next up were Monteiro, Schaufler and Cota.
Championship leader Lammers was eighth fastest overall and qualified seventh for race two.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Thomas Strauven Campos Racing 1m45.063s
2 Jan Przyrowski Campos Racing +0.014s
3 Ean Eyckmans MP Motorsport +0.202s
4 Noah Monteiro Campos Racing +0.354s
5 Niklas Schaufler MP Motorsport +0.359s
6 Juan Cota MP Motorsport +0.483s
7 Christopher Feghali Drivex School +0.498s
8 Rene Lammers MP Motorsport +0.500s
9 Andrej Petrovic Tecnicar Motorsport +0.650s
10 Vivek Kanthan Campos Racing +0.679s
Race 2 grid
1 Strauven 1m45.146s
2 Przyrowski +0.134s
3 Eyckmans +0.202s
4 Monteiro +0.424s
5 Schaufler +0.480s
6 Cota +0.501s
7 Lammers +0.524s
8 Feghali +0.577s
9 Petrovic +0.632s
10 Reno Francot MP Motorsport +0.661s