Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi fastest in F4 test at Mugello

Photo: F4 UAE

Nadhavud Bhirombhakdi was fastest for PHM Racing in a two-day test for Formula 4 teams at Mugello this week.

Monday and Tuesday were split into four sessions each, and Bhirombhakdi set the pace in the opening session with a 1m50.701s lap. That put him a slim 0.016 seconds ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ivan Domingues and 0.019s ahead of Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri. Brando Badoer was 0.174s back in fourth, and James Egozi only 0.286s behind in fifth.

Al Dhaheri lowered the pace to 1m49.300s in session two, and was a third of a second fastest than PHM’s Valentin Kluss who was the next driver. VAR’s Badoer was the only other driver to lap sub-1m50s, and Egozi was fourth fastest and the last driver within a second of the pace.

Egozi set a new 1m49.003s benchmark in session three, and was 0.325s clear of a closely matched group of cars. Kluss was secon fastest, just 0.023s ahead of Badoer, with Davide Larini a further 0.029s behind him and Nikita Johnson another 0.023s back in fifth. This time the top eight all lapped sub-1m50s.

Larini, Ismail Akhmed, Real Racing Team’s driver and the solo BWR Motorsports failed to improve in the day’s final session, which everyone else set their personal best laps in. Bhirombhakdi returned to the fore with a 1m48.634s effot, 0.138s faster than Egozi and 0.201s quicker than Domingues. Three more drivers joined them in breaking the 1m49s barrier.

The laptimes on the second day were considerably slower, with a 2m11.248s lap being the fastest of Tuesday’s opening session. It was even slower in session two, as Badoer led the way after setting a 2m14.441s, and although conditions improved for representative running in the afternoon there was still no improvement on the previous day’s bests.

A 1m49.798s put Badoer 0.059s ahead of Domingues at the top in the penultimate session, then in the final track action of the day he set a 1m49.394s to head Johnson by 0.215s.

Giacomo Pedrini was the fastest driver in an older first-generation F4 car, sitting 12th overall in the test’s combined timesheet and 1.338s off the pace.

Test results