Niccolo Maccagnani tops F4 group test at Barcelona

Formula 4 teams tested at Barcelona this week for two days, and Niccolo Maccagnani was fastest.

US Racing’s Luka Sammalisto was first to set a representative laptime in the Thursday morning session, posting a 1m46.465s.

He improved on each of his next two laps, bringing the pace down to 1m43.645s, then team-mate Andrija Kostic went faster than him by 0.286 seconds. The next change at the top came 18 minutes later, as Maccagnani posted a 1m43.318s.

The 14-year-old Italian will become a Ferrari Formula 1 junior next year, and his test entry was run by Nicco Team. They and Van Amersfoort Racing did private testing at Barcelona in the days before the group test.

Maccagnani was in first place for almost half an hour before Sammalisto nosed back ahead by 0.033s, but in the next few minutes Maccagnani responded with two laps in the 1m42.4s.

Prema’s Sebastian Wheldon and R-ace GP’s Alex Powell were the only others driver who lapped sub-1m43s, both doing so halfway through their run plan. Wheldon was 0.388s off Maccagnani and Powell trailed by 0.505s.

Sammalisto was fourth after improving to 1m43.005s, putting him just ahead of Pream’s Kean Nakamura Berta. Split by 0.001s behind them were R-ace’s Emanuele Olivieri and Prema’s Sasha Bondarev. There were 38 cars on track in total.

It took half an hour for any action to take place in the afternoon session, and VAR’s Lyuboslav Ruykov was the first driver to get some running in. He set a 1m46.347s, which was swiftly beaten by a 1m43.797s from Nakamura.

Bondarev was next to go quickest, edging Nakamura by 0.007s, then 14 minutes later Nakmura made back-to-back improvements to lower the pace to 1m43.101s.

He was toppled in the session’s third hour by Maccagnani, who set two more personal bests over an hour later. His 1m42.621s benchmark went unbeaten, although VAR’s Maximilian Popov got within 0.059s of him.

Powell was 0.359s behind in third, and Nakamura was 0.48s off in fourth. Olivieri and Wheldon were next up.

Popov was one of nine drivers to better their morning times, with the next best being US’s Ludovico Busso.

Ruykov was first to the top again on Friday morning, with US’s Kabir Anurag succeeding him in first place. Sammalisto and Kostic also went quickest in the first seven minutes, before Cram Motorsport’s Elia Weiss took over at the top with two laps in the 1m44s.

Busso went 0.88s faster than Weiss and his 1m43.211s kept him ahead for seven minutes prior to Popov reclaiming first place. Nakamura was first into the 1m42s, and team-mates Newman Chi and Wheldon narrowly beat him. The latter’s 1m42.502s lap was the day’s first long-standing benchmark.

Oliveri beat it 49 minutes in, setting a new fastest lap of the test with a 1m42.096s, and 22 minutes later Maccagnani outpaced him by 0.027s to top another session.

Nakamura set a 1m42.385s to take third, and a 1m42.514s put Bondarev sixth, just ahead of Powell and Sammalisto. The top 13 lapped in the 1m42s.

It was 12 minutes before any laps were set in the afternoon, and Prema’s Beco Bernoldi was initially quickest. Ruykov later bettered him, then Sammalisto was first into the 1m44s. Ruykov and Kostic spent time ahead, then Bondarev and Wheldon in quick succession lowered the pace 40 minutes in.

Wheldon’s 1m43.674s went unbeaten for 53 minutes, with Nakamura next to lead the way. He set successive improvements, then made a 0.003s gain 71 minutes after that. He would not be able to improve after posting his 1m43.246s, while in the fourth hour Maccagnani set a new benchmark four times.

He ended the session in the pits, along with everyone else bar R-ace’s Emily Cotty, and 0.791s clear of Nakamura. Powell, Olivieri and PHM Racing’s David Cosma Cristofor were the only others within a second of Maccagnani.

Everyone bar VAR’s Dante Vinci and PHM’s Levi Arn set their fastest laps in session three.

Test results