MP’s Juan Cota quickest at Paul Ricard in Spanish F4 practice

Photo: Spanish F4

MP Motorsport’s Juan Cota was fastest in Spanish Formula 4 free practice at Paul Ricard on Friday.

The day kicked off with pre-event testing, and MP’s Reno Francot was first to post a representative laptime in session one. Global Racing Service’s Alexandar Bogunovic and Cota spent time on top before MP driver Ean Eyckmans became the first to lap in the 2m07s.

Francot returned to first place two minutes later, setting a 2m06.969s, and Eyckmans responded with three successive improvements that brought the pace down to 2m06.336s.

Campos Racing’s Noah Monteiro bettered Eyckmans benchmark by just 0.001 seconds in the second half of the 30-minute session, and two laps after that improved to 2m06.215s.

His team-mate Vivek Kanthan scrubbed 0.061s off the pace not long after, then MP’s Rene Lammers set a 2m06.006s that would not be beaten. Eyckmans got closest, lapping 0.026s off his team-mate on his penultimate lap, and behind Kanthan was Rodin Motorsport’s Nathan Tye and Monteiro. A second covered the top 17.

Only seven of the 33 drivers set personal bests in session two. TC Racing’s Alfio Spina was quickest early on, then three consecutive improvements from Lammers made a 2m06.991s the time to beat.

Eyckmans quickly beat him, then Drivex School’s Christopher Feghali posted a 2m07.881s to lead the way for a while.

Campos’s drivers came to the fore in the session’s second half, with Jan Przyrowski and Thomas Strauven trading fastest laps. Strauven’s 2m06.154s, which was quicker than his session one best and put him fourth overall in the combined classification, was later beaten to the tune on 0.008s by Eyckmans. Przyrowski was 0.076s off the session’s best to climb to seventh overall, and Lammers trailed by 0.389s in fourth.

Free practice in the afternoon was also half an hour, and Spina was the early pace-setter once more.

Tecnicar Motorsport’s Andrej Petrovic took over at the top with two laps in the 2m08s, then Lammers set a 2m07.768s less than eight minutes in. Cota bettered that by 0.185s when he crossed the line, but conceded top spot by 0.099s when Lammers completed his next lap.

The next change at the top came after 16 minutes, with Tye posting a 2m07.250s. That looked tricky to beat, but then Przyrowski trumped it by 0.652s as he broke into the 2m06s.

Soon other drivers did the same, including Cota who returned to top spot after setting a 2m06.466s.

He had a 0.132s gap to Przyrowski and 0.146s to championship leader Strauven, and Lammers demoted Tye to fifth despite the Rodin driver improving late on. There were 10 drivers who lapped sub-2m07s, and a second covered the top 15.

Joining Drivex’s line-up this weekend is Ricardo Baptista, who made his single-seater debut in Brazilian F4 this year.

Free practice results