Montoya tops day one of Italian F4’s Monza test, Camara stars

Photo: ACI Sport

Prema’s Sebastian Montoya was fastest on day one of Italian Formula 4’s in-season Monza test.

He topped both Tuesday sessions, and his main opposition was usually Cram Motorsport’s Rafael Camara – the reigning WSK Super Master Series champion in OK karts.

Camara started the morning as fastest, then Montoya had 20 minutes on top before Camara went ahead with a 1m54.705s. They then didn’t improve until the session’s second half, after red flags when Jenzer Motorsport’s Samir Ben hit the barriers at the first Lesmo.

It was a Prema 2-3-4-5 at one point, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Conrad Laursen and Hamda Al Qubaisi behind Montoya.

Camara improved with 40 minutes to go, before another red flag period when BWR Motorsports’ sole car stopped at Parabolica. BWR kept the driver’s identity secret.

With 13 minutes to go Camara was shuffled to second by Tim Tramnitz, sharing his US Racing-run car with Vlad Lomko through the day. Montoya improved in third with 10 minutes left, then two laps later went fastest with a 1m54.201s, as Tramnitz solidified second place and Iron Lynx’s Leonardo Fornaroli bettered Camara for third.

The four-hour afternoon session featured Pietro Armanni (Iron Lynx) and Joshua Dufek, testing with Mucke Motorsport as usual team Van Amersfoort Racing was absent, initially at the top. Regular team-mate Cenyu Han was with Cram for the same reason.

Camara established himself in first place 40 minutes in, after AKM Motorsport’s Lorenzo Patrese was briefly fastest.

Fornaroli was the next pacesetter, before red flags came after Mercedes-backed karter Kim Hwarang (Jenzer) stopped at Lesmo 2.

Camara improved several times on his next run, enough to keep him ahead through two hours and the next stoppage. Dufek became his closest rival on pace while most sat in the pits.

Montoya and Fornaroli again surpassed Camara in the final hour, with no response from the karter, and the fastest lap was set with 15 minutes to go. Camara ended up fourth, as Al Qubaisi bettered him towards the end.

Cram’s Nicolas Baptiste couldn’t improve on his morning laptime, and slowest were Girls on Track Rising Stars contenders Victoria Blokhina and Kinga Wojcik.

Test results