Photo: ACI Sport
The grids have provisionally been set for Italian Formula 4’s three Saturday races at Misano after qualifying on Friday.
There were two sessions, each lasting 16 minutes and featuring half of the 44-car field.
Cram Motorsport’s Andre Rodriguez set the first representative laptime in Q1, a 1m37.984s, then Van Amersfoort Racing’s Dante Vinci went 1.107 seconds faster than him.
Next to top the times was R-ace GP’s Alex Powell, by just 0.015s, before Sebastian Wheldon lowered the pace on four successive laps. His Prema team-mate Newman Chi got within 0.161s of his 1m35.621s benchmark, and US Racing’s Luka Sammalisto was 0.254s behind in third.
Prema’s points leader Kean Nakamura Berta, US’s Kabir Anurag and PHM Racing’s Reno Francot were also within half a second of the pace, with the top 14 split by a second.
The fight to be fastest in Q2 was initially between the US trio of Gabriel Gomez, Andrija Kostic and Ludovico Busso.
VAR’s Maximilian Popov then usurped Gomez by 0.017s, and a minute later Prema’s Salim Hanna Hernandez streaked 0.49s clear at the top by setting a 1m35.938s. He improved by 0.124s on his next lap, but Gomez was able to respond later on with two laps good enough for pole.
His later 1m35.577s effort put him on top by 0.122s, with Popov trailing by 0.156s and Prema’s Andrea Dupe 0.272s off in fourth.
Sasha Bondarev (Prema) pipped Kirill Kutskov (Maffi Racing) to fifth by 0.01s, and Emanuele Olivieri (R-ace) was a further 0.013s behind. The top 15 were covered by a second, with debutants Niccolo Maccagnani (BVM Racing) and Ary Bansal (US) in 11th and 16th.
The combined classification alternated between the two sessions’ orders, meaning Gomez was fastest overall ahead of Wheldon, Hanna, Chi, Popov, Sammalisto, Dupe and Nakamura.
That order was then split into three groups, in cycles of three. This meant the drivers in first, fourth, seventh and 10th in the combined classification were in group A, with the drivers in second, fifth, eighth, 11th and 14th in group B, and the drivers in third, sixth, ninth, 12th and 15th put into group C.
The cyclical pattern of grouping continued down to 44th, meaning groups A and B featured 15 drivers while group C had 14.
Groups B and C will contest race one on Saturday morning, with Wheldon clinching pole by 0.078s over Hanna, groups A and B will enter race two in the afternoon and at the end of the day groups A and C will feature in race three.
Gomez will line up on race two pole having outpaced Wheldon by 0.044s, then his fourth pole of 2025 is earned by 0.122s over Hanna.
The results of Saturday will determine which 36 drivers make it through to race four on Sunday, then the season ends with a rescheduled race from the Imola round — which Gomez also has pole for — open to 37 cars.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Sebastian Wheldon Prema 1m35.621s
2 Salim Hanna Hernandez Prema +0.078s
3 Maximilian Popov Van Amersfoort Racing +0.112s
4 Luka Sammalisto US Racing +0.254s
5 Kean Nakamura Berta Prema +0.320s
6 Sasha Bondarev Prema +0.379s
7 Kirill Kutskov Maffi Racing +0.389s
8 Reno Francot PHM Racing +0.408s
9 David Cosma Cristofor PHM Racing +0.636s
10 Marcus Saeter Van Amersfoort Racing +0.517s
Race 2 grid
1 Gabriel Gomez US Racing 1m35.577s
2 Wheldon +0.044s
3 Newman Chi Prema +0.205s
4 Popov +0.156s
5 Andrea Dupe Prema +0.272s
6 Nakamura +0.364s
7 Kabir Anurag US Racing +0.400s
8 Kutskov +0.433s
9 Emanuele Olivieri R-ace GP +0.446s
10 Cosma +0.680s
Race 3 grid
1 Gabriel Gomez US Racing 1m35.577s
2 Hanna +0.122s
3 Chi +0.205s
4 Sammalisto 0.298s
5 Dupe +0.272s
6 Bondarev +0.423s
7 Anurag +0.400s
8 Francot +0.452s
9 Olivieri +0.446s
10 Saeter +0.561s
Race 5 grid
1 Gomez 1m46.101s
2 Bondarev +0.005s
3 Nakamura +0.022s
4 Chi +0.240s
5 Olivieri +0.262s
6 Popov +0.305s
7 Hanna +0.324s
8 Enea Frey Jenzer Motorsport +0.328s
9 Artem Severiukhin Jenzer Motorsport +0.353s
10 Wheldon +0.369s