Drivex’s Matus Ryba leads 58-car field at Paul Ricard in F4 test

Photo: Drivex

The Italian and Spanish Formula 4 championships tested at Paul Ricard this week, and it was Matus Ryba who set the pace.

The drivers were split into their two championships for the test, and the Italian F4 runners were first on track on Tuesday. Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi set the pace, a 2m07.341s putting him 0.151 seconds ahead of team-mate Gustav Jonsson.

US Racing’s Gianmarco Pradel was 0.172s behind in third, with the Prema quintet of Kean Nakamura Berta, Freddie Slater, Rashid Al Dhaheri, Dion Gowda and Alex Powell filling the next positions and all within 0.5s of Yamakoshi. The top 13 was covered by a second.

Laptimes were a lot slower for the Spanish F4 contingent, with a 2m30.480s enough to put MP Motorsport’s Griffin Peebles on top, and by 0.151s over Rodin Motorsport’s Peter Bouzinelos. Campos Racing’s Jan Przyrowski was 0.447s behind in third, with MP’s Maciej Gladysz and Rene Lammers the only others within a second of the pace.

The Italian F4 runners also went slowly when they returned to track, and Pradel set a 2m20.975s to lead Jonsson by 0.449s as 0.929s covered the top seven.

Rodin’s Thomas Strauven lowered the Spanish F4 pace in their second session, setting a 2m16.883 to go fastest by 1.3s over Przyrowski. All 33 drivers on track improved, while Drivex School’s Ryba was absent.

A new 2m07.117s benchmark was set by Pradel in the next session, going just 0.082s faster than Dion Gowda. Yamakoshi, Rodella, Slater and Al Dhaheri were within 0.5s of Pradel, and there were eight non-improvers.

Douwe Dedecker, driving a ‘Team USA’-entered Global Racing Service-run car, improved to 2m19.078s to go fastest by 1.896s over Peebles in the next Spanish F4 session. Only five drivers improved their pace.

The day’s last sessions were even slower, with Pradel setting a 2m19.251s to lead Jonsson by 0.202s in Italian F4 and MP’s Keanu Al Azhari posting a 2m27.828s to pip Peebles by 0.171s, Ruba by 0.186s and Drivex’s Francisco Macedo by 0.284s in an uncompetitive Spanish F4 session.

The session order swapped around for Wednesday, and there were immediate pace improvements. Drivex’s Juan Cota set a 2m07.316s to top the fifth Spanish F4 session by 0.856s over Gladysz and 0.936s over Przyrowski, with all improving. It was the same for Italian F4, as Yamakoshi lowered the pace to 2m04.214s. He was fastest by 0.363s over US Racing’s Akshay Bohra, with the top 12 split by 0.922s.

Peebles responded with a 2m02.537s in the next session, as everyone improved again, and was fastest by 1.706s over GRS’s Adrian Ferrer who had previously been near the bottom of the timesheet.

Jack Beeton set a 2m04.246s to lead a US Racing 1-2-3 in the sixth Italian F4 session, with Powell and Gowda in fourth and fifth. The eight non-improvers included VAR’s quintet.

A 2m04.328s lap put Ryba on top of the penultimate Spanish F4 session by 0.794s over Cota and 0.953s over Strauven, although 1.975s covered the top 21 and 15 drivers improved.

Yamakoshi edged Powell by 0.036s in an ultra-competitive seventh Italian F4 session, with a top 12 spread of 0.474s, but only three drivers set personal bests.

Ryba then set the fastest lap of testing – a 2m01.879s – in Spanish F4’s last session and was fastest by 2.592s over Ferrer, who did not improve. There were 10 drivers who did, while Cota and Sacha van’t Pad Bosch were absent.

Only one driver improved in the final Italian F4 session, and Jonsson set a 2m04.945s to lead a VAR 1-2-3-4.

Test results