Nakamura fastest in 43-car pre-season Italian F4 test at Misano

Photo: Prema

Prema’s Kean Nakamura Berta was fastest overall in Italian Formula 4 pre-season testing at Misano this week.

The 43-car entry list was split into two groups, with each getting eight sessions on track over the course of two days.

Testing began with a lack of representative running, as Nakamura set the pace in group A with a 1m50.028s lap. He was fastest by 0.929 seconds, but almost 15s slower than the pace he would reach later in the test.

Laptimes were similar in group B, as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Maximilian Popov occupied top spot with a 1m50.744s.

In session two, there was a battle between four Prema drivers to be fastest and Nakamura prevailed a minute from the end. He set a 1m37.375s to usurp team-mate Sebastian Wheldon, who also found more pace at the very but ended up 0.199s shy of first place. R-ace GP’s Alex Powell was half a second back in third.

US Racing’s Luka Sammalisto lowered the pace to 1mm36.134s in group B, pipping Jenzer Motorsport’s Artem Severiukhin by 0.067s and US’s Kabir Anurag by 0.18s.

Nakamura then broke into the 1m35s in session three, and while a bunch of successive personal bests kept him on top for half an hour when the chequered flag waved he was 0.013s faster than R-ace’s Emanuele Olivieri and 0.019s up on Wheldon.

In group B, US’s Gabriel Gomez was quickest with a 1m35.731s – 0.146s off Nakamura’s benchmark – and led Severiukhin by 0.046s.

The test’s fastest laps came in session four. Nakamura improved to 1m35.121s, putting 0.259s between himself and Wheldon, with other team-mate Sasha Bondarev 0.347s behind.

Group B went out first on day two, and Popov topped session five with a 1m35.865s lap. Team-mate Alexander Ruta was his closest rival, 0.273s off his pace. Prema locked out the top six places in group A, and a 1m35.634s put Wheldon just 0.013s ahead of Nakamura.

A 1m36s lap was enough to for Popov to occupy first place again in session six, and he led US’s Maxim Rehm by 0.211s. Group A was faster, and it was a Prema 1-2-3-4 this time. Nakamura set a 1m35.498s to be 0.195s faster than Wheldon.

It was super close at the top in session five, and Severiukhin’s 1m36.209s benchmark set 10s before the end was only 0.088s faster than the personal best of Anurag in fifth. Between them were Gomez, Sammalisto and Rehm.

Nakamura meanwhile had a 0.046s margin over Wheldon in group A, with Olivieri 0.116s off the top.

Jenzer’s Enea Frey was the fastest group B runner for session eight, and testing ended with Nakamura setting a 1m35.49s to head Bondarev by 0.227s in group A.

Test results