McLaren junior Ugochukwu fastest in Italian F4 pre-event test at Misano

Photo: ACI Sport

Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu was fastest in Thursday pre-event testing for Italian Formula 4 at Misano.

BVM Racing’s Alfio Spina was the early pacesetter in the two-hour morning session, leading the way after 10 minutes with a 1m37.514s. He improved on his next lap but was beaten by US Racing’s Akshay Bohra, who set a 1m36.753s, then Prema’s James Wharton posted a 1m36.293s.

Spina broke into the 1m36s on his lap after but was shuffled down to fifth. US Racing’s Kacper Sztuka was first into the 1m35s, with Prema’s drivers getting close to his pace in the first 20 minutes and US Racing’s Zachary David also lapping sub-1m36s.

Tuukka Taponen toppled Sztuka after 23 minutes with a 1m35.329s, and the Prema driver stayed in first place for almost 20 minutes before Van Amersfoort Racing’s Brando Badoer rose from 14th to first with a 1m35.205s.

He improved to 1m35.057s, while Sztuka in third also improved his pace, then at the start of the second hour there was a red flag stoppage. Another occurred with 22 minutes remaining, and Badoer was still on top.

There was a flurry of improvements in the final 12 minutes once track action resumed, with VAR’s Ivan Domingues going fastest with a 1m35.004s and Taponen slotting into third with a 1m35.329s.

Prema’s Arvid Lindblad then went second fastest, 0.029s off Domingues, with Wharton going fourth fastest seconds later and then Badoer setting a new 1m34.755s benchmark just a few moments after that.

Lindblad’s next lap was a 1m34.977s, returning him to second place, but after that Wharton set a 1m34.891s to sit 0.136s behind Badoer.

Taponen improved to fourth and was just 0.012s slower than Lindblad, with Domingues finishing 0.249s behind in fifth. The top 16 were covered by a second.

There was lots of activity at the start of the afternoon session. Jenzer Motorsport’s Kim Hwarang was fastest at first, then Bohra. A few minutes later Jenzer’s Ethan Ischer was on top, with team-mate Ariel Elkin and Ugochukwu going even faster before red flags were waved. David went fastest after the restart, and ended the first half-hour on top with a 1m35.149s.

A minute later Ugochukwu set a 1m35.071s, and a 1m35.118s from Sztuka put him in second. Wharton improved in fourth, then the order went unchanged until the second hour when Bohra went fastest by 0.067s.

Sztuka matched Bohra’s pace, and next time by went 0.042s faster to break into the 1m34s. There was then a red flag stoppage, and later on with 27 minutes remaining US Racing’s Gianmarco Pradel went fifth.

The final 15 minutes had more action, as Sztuka and David moved to the top. Lindblad and then Ugochukwu went fastest with seven minutes to go, Wharton went third fastest with two minutes left and Taponen moved into fifth in the final minute.

Uguochukwu, with a 1m34.689s, and Lindblad both beat Badoer’s morning benchmark, and less than a second covered the afternoon’s top 25. Badoer, Domingues, Matheus Ferreira, Davide Larini, Jack Beeton and Manuel Quondamcarlo set their personal bests in the morning.

Pre-event test results