Poland’s Przyrowski puts it on pole in Portugal in Spanish F4

Photo: Campos Racing

Campos Racing’s Jan Przyrowski claimed pole position for Spanish Formula 4’s third race at Algarve in qualifying two.

The 20-minute session was quiet early on, with only six of the 33 drivers having set laps seven minutes in. TC Racing’s Santino Panetta led the way, with a 1m46.416s putting him over 0.6 seconds ahead of MP Motorsport’s Ean Eyckmans.

There were 15 drivers on track after eight minutes, and Panetta soon lowered the pace to 1m45.953s. His advantage at the top was trimmed as the session approached its halfway mark, with Drivex School’s Gino Trappa, Stepan Suslov and Filippo Fiorentino all briefly occupying second place to reduce Panetta’s gap to a third of a second.

Eight drivers had still not completed a lap after 10 minutes, including Campos’s race one and two poleman Thomas Strauven.

As the track became busier and slipstreams became more readily available, laptimes began to drop. Juan Cota set a 1m45.531s to go fastest by 0.131s over MP team-mate Hudson Schwartz, with Panetta shuffled down to third and then to seventh as MP’s Niklas Schaufler went quickest by 0.011s and Drivex’s trio all beat the early pacesetter.

MP’s Rene Lammers posted a 1m45.595s to rise to third with eight minutes to go, as Cota lowered the pace further to 1m45.076s. At this point outside the top 23 were Rodin Motorsport’s Nathan Tye, Strauven and Przyrowski.

Schaufler got within 0.306s of Cota with seven minutes left on the clock, and MP’s Reno Francot set a 1m45.41s in third.

A minute later the order looked very different, as Eyckmans and Strauven broke the 1m45s barrier, Przyrowski matched Cota and Tye went seventh fastest.

Schaufler improced, but remained in fifth, then entering the final five minutes Przyrowski moved to the top by setting a 1m44.895s. His team-mate Miguel Costa punched in a 1m44.919s to jump to third 30s later, but was soon down to fourth as Strauven got within 0.013s of Przyrowski.

Two laps later there was another improvement by Strauven, and a 1m44.815s provisionally put him on pole by 0.068s as Przyrowski set a personal best of 1m44.883s in second. Their battle continued to after the chequered flag, as Przyrowski snatched back top spot by 0.224s.

Half a second covered the top five, with Noah Monteiro (Campos) beating Schaufler to sixth and Matus Ryba (Campos) taking eighth after the clock hit zero. Title contender Lammers ended up in 10th.

Qualifying results