Lammers leads by just 0.016s in Spanish F4 practice at Algarve

Photo: Spanish F4

MP Motorsport’s Rene Lammers was fastest in Spanish Formula 4’s first two practice sessions at Algarve.

He had a gap of less than a tenth of a second at the top in each, and it was the FP1 order that proved more conclusive since nobody was able to set personal bests in FP2.

Monlau Motorsport’s Alexander Jacoby was first to the top in FP1, setting a 1m50.806s. Tecnicar Motorsport’s Andrej Petrovic trumped him by 2.23 seconds, then TC Racing’s Alfio Spina went another 1.518s faster than him as the pace was lowered in swift succession.

Spina improved to 1m46.013s on his next lap, and two minutes later MP’s Ean Eyckmans set a 1m45.787s to go fastest. Spina took two laps to respond, moving back ahead by 0.096s.

His 1m45.691s on his fifth lap stood as the session’s fastest for 19 minutes before MP’s Niklas Schaufler went 0.013s faster than him. Lammers then made his way to the top of the timesheet, setting a 1m45.67s and then a 1m45.38s in successive laps. Between those two efforts, Petrovic was fastest again for a minute after posting a 1m45.396s.

Thomas Strauven, Schaufler and Campos Racing team-mate Vivek Kanthan all got within 0.1s of Lammers’ benchmark late on, with Eyckmans 0.117s back in sixth. MP’s Juan Cota was 0.17s off the pace in seventh, and half a second covered the top 18.

Monlau’s Francisco Monarca was quickest at first in FP2, then Petrovic and Spina were briefly on top before Monarca completed his next lap and improved to 1m47.471s. His team-mate Lorenzo Campos bettered him by 0.225s, then Petrovic returned to first place with his next lap.

Eyckmans was soon the driver to beat, improving three times in a row to lower the pace to 1m46.498s. As in FP1, after the conclusion of the first runs there was then a 20-minute wait before anyone set a faster laptime and it was MP team-mate Reno Francot who achieved the feat by 0.05s.

Lammers went quickest a minute later, setting a 1m46.374s. Campos’s Noah Monteiro beat Eyckmans by 0.001s, and just 0.008s split Kanthan and his team-mates Matus Ryba and Miguel Costa who completed a top seven covered by 0.188s. There were 26 drivers within a second of Lammers’ pace.

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