Jenzer’s Ischer fastest by a second on day one of Paul Ricard F4 test

Photo: ACI Sport

Jenzer Motorsport’s Ethan Ischer was fastest on the first day of a Formula 4 test at Paul Ricard contested by teams from the Italian championship.

There were four sessions on Monday, with only one of those taking place in the morning and being the slowest as there was little rubber laid down on the track.

Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri set the pace in that session, with a 2m05.526s lap putting him just 0.049 seconds ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ivan Domingues.

R-ace GP’s Rapahael Narac and US Racing’s Akshay Bohra were 0.164s and 0.166s back respectively in third and fourth, and the top 19 were covered by 0.912s.

The timesheet was nowhere near as closely contested when the F4 runners returned to track in the afternoon, with Ischer setting the fastest lap of the day in the second session which started at midday.

His 2m03.643s, which he set in the session’s first half, was 1.308s faster than the next best driver and only six drivers in total were within two seconds of him.

However the top four in that session were among nine in the 37-car field that did not improve in the next two sessions, and they were all shuffled down the order bar Ischer who remained a second clear of what anyone else could manage through the rest of the day.

Six drivers set their personal best in session three, including VAR’s Jack Beeton who with a 2m04.712s went second fastest overall. He topped the session by 0.948s over Bohra, with VAR’s Brando Badoer a further 0.040s behind and the only other driver within a second of Beeton’s pace.

Although the fourth session was the fastest one for 22 of the drivers, the fastest lap of the session – a 2m04.838s – was slower than the previous two. It was more closely contested though, with a gap of 0.415s between the top two and a second splitting the top 12.

It was Ischer who occupied 12th in that session, and he was 19th and 27th in sessions one and three.

Day one results