Powell pips Prema team-mate Gowda to top spot in Italian F4 practice

Photo: ACI Sport

Prema’s Alex Powell went to the top at the very end of Italian Formula 4 free practice at Imola.

There was a morning and an afternoon session, and US Racing’s Matheus Ferreira continued his pre-event test-topping form by going fastest in FP1. He set a 1m45.339s to lead Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi by just 0.002 seconds and with Prema’s Freddie Slater 0.075s behind in third.

US’s Akshay Bohra had laid down the very first benchmark of the session, a 1m54.396s that was swiftly beaten by Ferreira who went 0.719s faster. Their team-mates Kabir Anurag and Maxim Rehm then lowered the pace further, with the latter setting a 1m51.800s to put himself 1.74s clear at the top.

But a minute later Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri beat that laptime by 0.223s, then Bohra went a massive three seconds faster. Others were capable of that pace, with Rehm going fastest by 0.063s then Slater improving twice to bring the pace down to 1m46.258s.

That kept him on top for two minutes before Powell set a 1m45.945s, then Yamakoshi lowered the pace four times in a row and the time to beat with 16 minutes to go was a 1m45.341s.

Many drivers were able to set rapid sector one splits, but then found traffic in the later sectors that prevented them from improving their laptimes and so Yamakoshi remained in top spot until Ferreira set a 1m45.339s with 10 minutes remaining to take first place by 0.002s.

Slater went third fastest with four minutes to go, putting him ahead of Powell and team-mate Tomass Stolcermanis. US’s Jack Beeton was sixth, and there were no improvements at the very end as red flags waved just as the chequered flag also appeared.

VAR’s Gustav Jonsson started FP2 on top with a 1m49.462s, and Slater was the first driver into the 1m48s. A minute later his team-mate Kean Nakamura Berta brought the pace down into the 1m47s, then Jonsson responded with a 1m46.874s.

Yamakoshi was tucked into his slipstream and the benefit of that was a 1m46.614s lap, but next time around Jonsson improved to 1m46.372s. Alvise Rodella then became the third VAR driver to hit the top, and did so by 0.005s. That was only for two seconds, as Jenzer Motorsport’s Ethan Ischer set a 1m46.210s.

Powell set the afternoon’s first sub-1m46s lap, but was soon shuffled down to 11th as Jenzer’s Reno Francot and Jonsson set new fastest laps. He was back on top 20 minutes later with a 1m45.391s, then Nakamura edged him by 0.018s.

As the session ended Nakamura was demoted to third, with team-mate Dion Gowda setting a 1m45.212s then Powell going 0.02s faster than that. The pair were among the 18 drivers in the 38-car field to improve on their FP1 bests, with Ferreira and Yamakoshi 21st and 14th respectively in FP2 but third and fourth overall. Ferreira only did four laps in the session.

Free practice results