Karting stars join Spanish F4 test at Valencia topped by van’t Hoff

Photo: Spanish F4

MP Motorsport’s Dilano van’t Hoff topped Spanish Formula 4’s in-season test at Valencia Ricardo Tormo, where several karters joined the action.

Praga F4’s Daniel Macia was fastest in the test’s first session on Monday morning, setting a 1m34.596s that was 0.153 seconds faster than van’t Hoff.

Macia’s team-mate Quique Bordas was third, just 0.026s slower than van’t Hoff, while Drivex’s Lola Lovinfosse was only able to set three laps.

In the afternoon it was van’t Hoff who was on top, although he couldn’t better Macia’s morning benchmark. The only other drivers who lapped sub-1m35s in that session were Max Arkhangelskiy, Filip Jenic and Pepe Marti.

The track got grippier on Tuesday morning, but air temperatures rose beyond 38°C in the afternoon and limited the pace gain.

Van’t Hoff improved to a 1m34.228s lap in the first session, edging Guilherme Oliveira, Jorge Campos, Marti and Jenic. The top 23 all lapped in the 1m34s, while Bordas was the only driver not to improve from his Monday morning best.

The test ended with Noah Stromsted, who after turning 14 later this month will debut in Danish F4, setting the pace for Teo Martin Motorsport. He was fastest in the final session with a 1m34.934s, 0.027s faster than Marti.

Emmo Fittipaldi, Stromsted’s Danish F4 team-mate, tested for Global Racing Service. The team also ran two Regional Formula 3 cars, one for former GT World Challenge Europe racer Alexey Karachev, and Anshul Gandhi in its third F4 car.

The United Arab Emirates-based Indian has won the UAE karting championship as well as testing in F4 with Xcel Motorsport there.

Other karters present included MP’s development driver Miron Pingasov, who was coached by Richard Verschoor, France’s Florian Rousseau Ricci, Mexico’s Ricardo Escotto, Dani Briz – currently ninth in the Spanish Karting Championship – and Italians Alfio Spina and Niko Lacorte. Factory Parolin driver Spina recently won the Italian championship.

Test results