
Photo: F4 UAE
Mumbai Falcons’ Kean Nakamura Berta led the way in Formula 4 Middle East pre-season testing at Yas Marina Circuit this week.
There were three sessions on Tuesday and three on Wednesday, and Nakamura began proceedings on top. He set a 1m56.544s in session one to lead Prema’s Sebastian Wheldon by 0.422 seconds, with only six others within a second of him and all of them more than three quarters of a second off the pace.
Prema’s Newman Chi and Yas Heat Academy’s Adam Al Azhari were third and fourth fourth. Evans GP’s Martin Molnar, in seventh, set his best lap of Tuesday in that session.
The pace was slightly slower in session two, which Emanuele Olivieri topped. He set a 1m56.686s to pip Nakamura by 0.087s, with R-ace GP team-mate Alex Powell 0.38s and Wheldon 0.4s behind respectively in third and fourth. Mumbai Falcons’ Salim Hanna Hernandez and Tomass Stolcermanis occupied the next two places, with Evans GP’s Tiago Rodrigues, Xcel Motorsport’s Abdullah Kamel and Chi also within a second of Olivieri.
Olivieri, Kamel, R-ace’s Alexander Savinkov and Pinnacle Motorsport duo Kyuho Kee and Yuzhe Wang all set personal bests for the day in session two.
Nakamura lowered the pace to 1m56.254 in session three, with Yas Heat’s August Raber closest to him. Wheldon and Stolcermais were within 0.3s of the pace in third and fourth, followed by Rodrigues, Olivieri and Hernandez. Powell also broke the 1m57s barrier. Akcel GP’s Hamda Al Qubaisi was absent from proceedings.
Track limits was the big talking point on Wednesday morning, with 48 laps by 18 drivers deleted. Olivieri ended up fastest by 0.593s over Nakamura, and was 0.023s shy of the Tuesday pace. Rodrigues, Hernandez and Wheldon filled the next spots.
Olivieri, Molnar, Savinkov, Xcel’s Yuhao Fu, Al Qubaisi, Taha Hassiba (in a Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation-branded car) and Pinnacle’s Yuta Suzuki all improved.
In session five, 40 laps by 22 drivers were deleted. A 1m55.766s from Nakamura became the new laptime to beat, and he led Wheldon by 0.244s while having a 0.361s gap to Powell and Olivieri. Stolcermanis set a 1m56.178s in fifth, with first to eighth covered by a second. The top 11 and four others improved.
Nakamura was quickest again in session six with a 1m56.046s lap. Al Azhari – who was one of nine improvers – was 0.317s behind in second, with Wheldon and Rodrigues also within half a second of Nakamura’s pace. This time 40 laps by 21 drivers were deleted.
Test results
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kean Nakamura Berta | Mumbai Falcons | 1m55.766s | 86 | |
2 | Sebastian Wheldon | Prema | 1m56.010s | +0.244s | 93 |
3 | Alex Powell | R-ace GP | 1m56.127s | +0.361s | 116 |
4 | Emanuele Olivieri | R-ace GP | 1m56.127s | +0.361s | 125 |
5 | Tomass Stolcermanis | Mumbai Falcons | 1m56.178s | +0.412s | 95 |
6 | Salim Hanna Hernandez | Mumbai Falcons | 1m56.345s | +0.579s | 92 |
7 | Adam Al Azhari | Yas Heat | 1m56.363s | +0.597s | 100 |
8 | August Raber | Yas Heat | 1m56.376s | +0.610s | 103 |
9 | Newman Chi | Prema | 1m56.483s | +0.717s | 83 |
10 | Tiago Rodrigues | Evans GP | 1m56.508s | +0.742s | 121 |
11 | Reno Francot | Akcel GP | 1m56.557s | +0.791s | 106 |
12 | Sasha Bondarev | Prema | 1m56.848s | +1.082s | 85 |
13 | Yuhao Fu | Xcel Motorsport | 1m56.883s | +1.117s | 98 |
14 | Cole Hewetson | Xcel Motorsport | 1m56.945s | +1.179s | 88 |
15 | Martin Molnar | Evans GP | 1m57.067s | +1.301s | 108 |
16 | Arjun Chheda | Mumbai Falcons | 1m57.153s | +1.387s | 92 |
17 | Alexander Savinkov | R-ace GP | 1m57.312s | +1.546s | 98 |
18 | Tameem Hassiba | QMMF | 1m57.353s | +1.587s | 89 |
19 | Taha Hassiba | QMMF | 1m57.354s | +1.588s | 89 |
20 | Hamda Al Qubaisi | Akcel GP | 1m57.393s | +1.627s | 86 |
21 | Abdullah Kamel | Xcel Motorsport | 1m57.500s | +1.734s | 104 |
22 | Seth Gilmore | Evans GP | 1m57.520s | +1.754s | 117 |
23 | Kyuho Lee | Pinnacle Motorsport | 1m57.591s | +1.825s | 122 |
24 | Bader Al Sulaiti | QMMF | 1m57.712s | +1.946s | 114 |
25 | Emily Cotty | R-ace GP | 1m57.758s | +1.992s | 83 |
26 | David Cosma Cristofor | Akcel GP | 1m57.765s | +1.999s | 94 |
27 | Yuta Suzuki | Pinnacle Motorsport | 1m57.936s | +2.170s | 136 |
28 | Yuzhe Wang | Pinnacle Motorsport | 1m58.266s | +2.500s | 109 |