Powell sets pace in pre-event test for Italian F4’s Misano season opener

Photo: F4 UAE

Prema’s Alex Powell was fastest in pre-event testing for Italian Formula 4’s Misano season opener.

There were 37 drivers entered, but Nathanael Berreby and Andrei Duna were not on track. Cram Motorsport’s Filippo Fiorentino meanwhile is absent this weekend.

Ahead of the test, R-ace GP confirmed Enzo Yeh in its line-up. He joined the team this year to race in F4 United Arab Emirates, and came 14th with one podium. He then contested Italian F4 pre-season testing and shared that he would be racing there, but the team did not confirm it until the last minute. Last year the single-seater rookie raced in F4 South East Asia, taking one podium en route to seventh in the standings.

Another late addition to the Misano grid is BVM Racing and its driver Jan Koller. Neither party was confirming their participation until championship organiser ACI did so on their behalf by mentioning them in its event preview.

Hiyu Yamakoshi was the pacesetter through much of the two-hour morning session, and had a long-standing 1m36.466s benchmark that he could not improve on in the session’s second half.

He had a 0.302s gap to Gustav Jonsson with 47 minutes to go, then Akshay Bohra reduced it to 0.072s. With 13 minutes left he was usurped by Tomass Stolcermanis by 0.034s, with Freddie Slater and Kean Nakamura Berta both within 0.1s of him.

Moments later Powell set a 1m35.178s to jump to the top, and 10 minutes after that improved to 1m34.821s to be 0.296s clear of Slater and 0.499s ahead of Emanuele Olivieri in third. Yamakoshi was shuffled down to ninth.

Lots of drivers spent time at the top in the afternoon session, starting with Gianmarco Pradel. Bohra and Kabir Anurag were next, then Reno Francot. Bohra was ahead after 15 minutes, then Slater spent the next 10 on top.

After that VAR’s drivers moved ahead, with Jonsson, Lin Hodenius then Yamakoshi going fastest. A 1m48.072s put Bohra back on top, but moments later Slater broke into the 1m47s. Stolcermanis was lapping in the 1m46s a few minutes after that, which Yamakoshi could match. But then 40 minutes in Slater set a 1m45.361s.

He, Powell and Stolcermanis traded fastest laps before there was an en masse return to the pits. Kamal Mrad and Jack Beeton stayed out, and in clear air brought the pace down to 1m38.965s.

Hour two began with Francot then Olivieri edging ahead. Mrad responded, then Francot set three successive fastest laps. Another two improvements after that made 1m36.917s the new benchmark.

Pradel was first to beat it, and with 32 minutes remaining the track got busy. Bohra, Yamakoshi and Powell soon traded top spot, with Yamakoshi’s 1m35.873s the laptime to beat in the last half-hour.

With eight-and-a-half minutes to go Rashid Al Dhaheri and Slater outpaced Yamakoshi, but session-ending red flags waved seconds before so their laps were deleted, dropping them back to 17th and 11th respectively. Yamakoshi ended the afternoon on top, 1.052s off Powell’s morning pace.

Gabriel Holguin was the only driver to set a personal best in the afternoon, while Enea Frey was black flagged and forced to spend five minutes in the pits during the session for track limits abuse.

Test results