Photo: ACI Sport
Prema’s Kean Nakamura Berta and US Racing’s Gabriel Gomez shared the pole positions for round one of the E4 season at Paul Ricard.
Nakamura was quickest in free practice one on Friday, setting a 2m07.606s to lead Alex Powell (R-ace GP) by 0.355 seconds. There was another big gap to Newman Chi (Prema) in third, as he was 0.627s off Nakamura’s pace, then 0.26s covered third down to 10th place. Gomez and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Dante Vinci were fourth and fifth.
Sebastian Wheldon rose to the fore in FP2, the Prema driver posting a 2m06.443s to go fastest by 0.121s. Nakamura was second, 0.26s clear of Gomez who was just ahead of Chi. Prema’s Sasha Bondarev pipped PHM Racing’s Reno Francot to fifth.
New signings at teams included Andre Rodriguez at VAR, GB4 title contender Ary Bansal at US Racing, Zengo Motorsport’s F4 Central European Zone racer Benett Gaspar and the trio of Ginevra Panzeri, Evan Michelini and Abdullah Kamel at AKM Motorsport.
Qualifying followed the next day, and in Q1 Nakamura beat Wheldon to pole by 0.111s. Gomez was a further 0.108s back in third, and Bondarev was the only other driver within half a second of pole.
Jenzer Motorsport’s Enea Frey put in a starring drive to be fifth fastest, ahead of solo entrant Francot, VAR’s Maximilian Popov, Powell and Jenzer’s Bart Harrison.
Nakamura found even more pace in Q2, improving to 2m05.817s to narrowly claim another pole. Francot and Gomez were just 0.055s and 0.057s slower than him, Wheldon was 0.176s back and Bondarev made it three Prema drivers in the top five.
Drivers’ second-best laptimes from across the two sessions set race three’s grid, and Gomez emerged with pole courtesy of a 2m05.875s lap. He was 0.241s faster than Wheldon, with Nakamura and Popov a further 0.005s and 0.03s. Bondarev was fifth again, ahead of Powell and Francot.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Kean Nakamura Berta Prema 2m06.128s
2 Sebastian Wheldon Prema +0.111s
3 Gabriel Gomez US Racing +0.219s
4 Sasha Bondarev Prema +0.409s
5 Enea Frey Jenzer Motorsport +0.648s
6 Kabir Anurag US Racing +0.659s
7 Reno Francot PHM Racing +0.668s
8 Maximilian Popov Van Amersfoort Racing +0.676s
9 Alex Powell R-ace GP +0.721s
10 Bart Harrison Jenzer Motorsport +0.849s
Race 2 grid
1 Nakamura 2m05.817s
2 Francot +0.055s
3 Gomez +0.057s
4 Wheldon +0.176s
5 Bondarev +0.268s
6 Popov +0.322s
7 Anurag +0.364s
8 Powell +0.404s
9 Newman Chi Prema +0.487s
10 Frey +0.547s
Race 3 grid
1 Gomez 2m05.875s
2 Wheldon +0.241s
3 Nakamura +0.246s
4 Popov +0.271s
5 Bondarev +0.294s
6 Powell +0.409s
7 Francot +0.440s
8 Chi +0.506s
9 Anurag +0.558s
10 Frey +0.574s