Enzo Tarnvanichkul takes P1 by 0.06s in Spanish F4 practice

Photo: Campos Racing

Campos Racing’s Enzo Tarnvanichkul was fastest in Spanish Formula 4 practice at Barcelona, leading an expanded 35-car field.

Returning to the grid was Rafael Teran, who replaced Lorenzo Campos at Global Racing Service, while USF Juniors race-winner Ariel Elkin took over the team’s third car after leaving Sainteloc Racing.

Lorenzo Castillo left Tecnicar Motorsport for Sainteloc, freeing up a seat for Teodor Borenstein to take, and Elkin’s old ride was occupied by F4 Central European Zone champion Oscar Wurz. Despite a recent run of strong results, Yevan David was absent from Sainteloc’s garage and replaced by Reno Francot.

Indian racer Ary Bansal was in for Thomas Strauven at Rodin Motorsport, and Monlau Motorsport brought its line-up back up to three cars with the addition of USF2000 podium-finisher Hudson Schwartz.

Before practice, all of those drivers got to familiarise themselves with the car, their new teams and the track in Friday’s pre-event test session.

Campos’s James Egozi led the way, a 1m42.398s earning him top spot by just 0.002 seconds over Drivex School’s Juan Cota. In third and fourth were Andres Cardenas (Campos) and Lorenzo Fluxa (MP Motorsport), only 0.047s and 0.072s slower than Egozi respectively.

Ernesto Rivera, team-mate Tarnvanichkul, MP’s Griffin Peebles and Monlau’s Tim Gerhards were all within 0.2s of the pace, and less than a second covered the top 26.

That closeness did not quite transfer into practice on Saturday morning, but it was still close at the top. Tarnvanichkul set a 1m44.632s to edge Gerhards by 0.06s, with Campos’s Jan Przyrowski and MP’s Mattia Colnaghi 0.114s and 0.186s behind.

Rivera completed a top five split by 0.262s, but everyone else was more than 0.4s slower than Tarnvanichkul and only 10 drivers lapped within a second of his pace. Teran was slowest in both sessions, 6.587s off the outright pace set in testing.

Free practice results