Kabir Anurag tops Mugello test as Italian F4 finalises format change

Photo: Kabir Anurag

US Racing’s Kabir Anurag narrowly claimed top spot in Italian Formula 4’s two-day pre-season test at Mugello.

There were four sessions each day, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Maximilian Popov topped the very first with a 1m49.519s lap. That put him 0.367 seconds ahead of Real Racing Team’s Luca Viisoreanu, with Prema’s Kean Nakamura Berta a further 0.007s back. US’s Maxim Rehm and Prema’s Tomass Stolcermanis were also within half a second of the pace.

Anurag came to the fore in session with the fastest time of the test: a 1m48.482s. He led Nakamura by 0.259s, and little over a tenth of a second then covered him, Rehm, Stolcermanis and Prema’s Newman Chi. A second split the top 11 once again, and this time Popov was only 13th fastest.

Chi was the benchmark driver in session three, posting a 1m48.554s lap that put him third overall in the test. He edged Stolcermanis by 0.017s, then Nakamura and Wheldon completed a Prema lockout of the top four places. VAR’s drivers filled the next three places.

The day ended with Stolcermanis topping session four. He set a 1m48.786s, edging Viisoreanu by 0.119s, Wheldon by 0.131s and Nakamura by 0.207s. Rehm was fifth, 0.244s off the top.

It was closer at the top on day two, and Popov led the way in sessions five and six. In the former he set a 1m48.935s, beating Viisoreanu by 0.13s and US’s Gabriel Gomez by 0.169s. Although half a second covered the five, there were 13 drivers within a second of Popov. He improved to 1m48.548s in session six, putting him second overall, and with Stolcermanis and Nakamura only 0.013s and 0.02s behind they pinned down fourth and fifth place overall.

Viisoreanu and Chi were within 0.2s of Popov’s laptime, and the top 15 were separated by a second on pace.

Stolcermanis set a 1m48.913s to beat Nakamura to top spot by 0.06s in session seven, with a Prema top four again, and Dante Vinci led a VAR top three lockout in session eight with a 1m48.588s lap that put him sixth overall.

Due to expected entry list sizes (capped at 42 cars) and the capacity of tracks, Italian F4 will split drivers into three lettered groups at race events this year including for the Misano season opener.

Instead of three races each lasting 30 minutes-plus-one lap, there will be four races and they will end five minutes earlier. Three will be ‘qualifying races’ and feature the drivers in each group go against each other (A+B, A+C, B+C). The event’s points table following that will then determine the qualifiers (totalling 36) and the grid of the ‘final race’.

The field will also be split in two for qualifying, with those results determing group allocation.

Test results