Disgraced karter Severiukhin tops last Italian F4 test of the year

Photo: FIA Karting / KSP Reportages

AKM Motorsport’s Artem Severiukhin topped the final post-season Italian Formula 4 test of 2023 at Vallelunga.

PHM Racing’s James Egozi was fastest in the first three-and-a-half hour session on Thursday, setting a 1m49.468s late on to lead Severiukhin by a huge 1.204 seconds.

The Russian youngster got into trouble after winning the opening round of last year’s European Karting Championship at Algarve [pictured above] as he made an alleged Nazi salute while on the podium as the national anthem of Italy (the country whose license he was racing under since he could not use a Russian one) played.

There was a swift response to his action as his team Ward Racing terminated his contract and the FIA disqualified him from the event and put him under investigation for the incident.

Severiukhin, now 17, returned to racing this year in shifter karting with the Racing Line team.

Third fastest in the test session was Shimo Zhang (Jenzer Motorsport), who was 0.067s slower than Severiukhin, and PHM duo Maximilian Popov and Kamal Mrad were both two seconds off the pace in fourth and fifth. AKM’s Newman Chi was 3.016s slower than Egozi in sixth.

Laptimes were way faster in the afternoon session, which lasted two-and-a-half hours, and also the 12-car entry list was more closely matched.

Egozi was set to be the benchmark again with a 1m40.716s, but with his final lap R-ace GP’s Luka Sammalisto beat him by 0.001s. Sammalisto had only set 13 laps in the earlier session and been 8.107s off the pace.

Mrad was just 0.129s slower than Sammalisto in third place, and Zhang completed a top four covered by 0.715s.

Popov and Chi were split by 0.04s in fifth and sixth, and Severiukhin was 1.492s off the pace in seventh.

The pace got lowered even more in the first session on Friday, with Severiukhin leading the way.

He set a 1m34.521s to go fastest by 0.122s over Sammalisto and 0.134s over Egozi. Zhang, 0.479s behind, and Popov were the only other driver within a second of the pace.

Every driver improved in the final session in the afternoon, and Severiukhin brought the pace down to 1m34.327s. Egozi was just 0.077s slower, and Sammalisto was 0.1912s behind in third. Chi made it into fourth, less than a quarter of a second off Severiukhin, while Popov and Zhang were closely matched half a second off in fifth and sixth. The top 10 was covered by 0.881s.

Test results