Photo: F4 UAE
Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri was the pacesetter in the two pre-season test days for Formula 4 United Arab Emirates.
Both were hosted at Yas Marina Circuit, with day one taking place on the Grand Prix layout and day two on the Corkscrew layout.
PHM Racing’s F4 returnee Nikita Bedrin, who raced in Formula 3 last year, topped the first two sessions on the opening day.
In session one he set a 1m57.741s to lead Yas Heat Academy’s Keanu Al Azhari by 0.198 seconds, with R-ace GP’s Raphael Narac 0.25s off the pace in third, Mumbai Falcons’ Dion Gowda 0.375s back in fourth and Al Dhaheri 0.558s behind in fifth.
Just over 0.9s covered the top nine drivers in the 35-car field, with Prema running Chinese karter Zhenrui Chi in the car that Tomass Stolcermanis has been announced as driving in the final two rounds of the season.
Bedrin went slower in session two but still topped the timesheet with a 1m57.937s, putting him 0.106s ahead of Al Dhaheri. Mumbai Falcons’ Kean Nakamura Berta was a further 0.038s behind in third, with Jules Caranta (R-ace) and Gabriel Stilp (Hitech GP) the only others within half a second of the pace. The gap that covered the top five was larger than what covered fifth to 22nd place.
Al Azhari and Narac were only seventh and 23rd fastest, and among the 10 drivers who did not improve on their session one pace. PHM’s Kamal Mrad meanwhile was the only driver whose best laptime came in session two. He went 11th fastest, and failing to improve in session three left him in 31st overall at the end of the day.
Al Dhaheri moved to the top in the final session, setting a 1m56.722s to lead Gowda by 0.219s. His team-mate Alex Powell was 0.108s behind him in third, with Bedrin fourth and Freddie Slater – another Mumbai Falcons driver – fifth. Yuanpu Cui (Xcel Motorsport), Stilp, Nakamura and Matteo Quintarelli (Sainteloc Racing) were all within 0.1s of Slater, and 0.968s covered the top 14.
Bedrin was back on top on day two, going fastest by one third of a second in session one with a 1m48.041s lap. Hitech’s Deagen Fairclough was his closest rival, with Powell 0.589s off the pace in third and Al Dhaheri 0.631s behind in fourth.
Al Dhaheri lowered the pace to 1m47.660s in session two. Mumbai Falcons trio Nakamura, Slater and Powell were 0.136s, 0.19s and 0.191s behind respectively in second, third and fourth. Al Azhari was fifth, ahead of Fairclough, Bedrin, Gowda and Prema’s Doriane Pin who was only 0.392s off the top.
A small majority of drivers set their personal best laptimes in that session, as 17 managed to improve in session three.
Slater got within 0.027s of Al Dhaheri’s earlier benchmark by setting a 1m47.687s, with Al Azhari and Fairclough also within 0.1s of the day’s ultimate pace. Bedrin was fourth fastest, then non-improvers Al Dhaheri and Powell were fifth and sixth. Quintarelli made it into the overall top 10 by getting within 0.396s of Slater’s pace in seventh.
Test results
| GP layout | Corkscrew layout | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps | Pos | Driver | Time | Laps |
| 1 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Prema | 1m56.722s | 43 | 1 | Al Dhaheri | 1m47.660s | 53 |
| 2 | Dion Gowda | Mumbai Falcons | +0.219s | 43 | 2 | Slater | +0.027s | 51 |
| 3 | Alex Powell | Mumbai Falcons | +0.327s | 43 | 3 | Al Azhari | +0.075s | 57 |
| 4 | Nikita Bedrin | PHM Racing | +0.398s | 55 | 4 | Fairclough | +0.094s | 63 |
| 5 | Freddie Slater | Mumbai Falcons | +0.573s | 44 | 5 | Nakamura | +0.136s | 53 |
| 6 | Yuanpu Cui | Xcel Motorsport | +0.588s | 47 | 6 | Bedrin | +0.185s | 62 |
| 7 | Gabriel Stilp | Hitech GP | +0.592s | 49 | 7 | Powell | +0.191s | 50 |
| 8 | Kean Nakamura Berta | Mumbai Falcons | +0.596s | 44 | 8 | Gowda | +0.351s | 51 |
| 9 | Matteo Quintarelli | Sainteloc Racing | +0.627s | 47 | 9 | Pin | +0.392s | 51 |
| 10 | Peter Bouzinelos | AGI Sport | +0.718s | 55 | 10 | Quintarelli | +0.423s | 60 |
| 11 | Doriane Pin | Prema | +0.805s | 45 | 11 | Stilp | +0.514s | 61 |
| 12 | Jules Caranta | R-ace GP | +0.820s | 47 | 12 | Beeton | +0.557s | 53 |
| 13 | Jack Beeton | AGI Sport | +0.844s | 45 | 13 | Caranta | +0.708s | 59 |
| 14 | Deagen Fairclough | Hitech GP | +0.968s | 45 | 14 | David | +0.773s | 59 |
| 15 | Seb Murray | Hitech GP | +1.090s | 49 | 15 | Narac | +0.803s | 54 |
| 16 | Raphael Narac | R-ace GP | +1.148s | 47 | 16 | Sammalisto | +0.843s | 55 |
| 17 | Keanu Al Azhari | Yas Heat | +1.171s | 51 | 17 | Mrad | +0.851s | 67 |
| 18 | Yevan David | Sainteloc Racing | +1.192s | 50 | 18 | Scoular | +0.889s | 53 |
| 19 | Kai Daryanani | Pinnacle Motorsport | +1.238s | 63 | 19 | Murray | +0.890s | 62 |
| 20 | Nicolas Stati | AGI Sport | +1.279s | 55 | 20 | Yeh | +0.931s | 47 |
| 21 | Maximilian Popov | PHM Racing | +1.366s | 57 | 21 | Chi | +0.981s | 53 |
| 22 | Luka Sammalisto | R-ace GP | +1.451s | 47 | 22 | Rodella | +1.035s | 57 |
| 23 | Tiago Rodrigues | Xcel Motorsport | +1.498s | 37 | 23 | Bouzinelos | +1.046s | 63 |
| 24 | Kaishun Liu | Xcel Motorsport | +1.531s | 49 | 24 | Cui | +1.055s | 52 |
| 25 | Zack Scoular | Yas Heat | +1.553s | 40 | 25 | Seeworthun | +1.087s | 62 |
| 26 | Enzo Yeh | R-ace GP | +1.572s | 50 | 26 | Stati | +1.144s | 59 |
| 27 | Reza Seewooruthun | Hitech GP | +1.589s | 52 | 27 | Daryanani | +1.173s | 67 |
| 28 | Alvise Rodella | Xcel Motorsport | +1.663s | 55 | 28 | Popov | +1.190s | 65 |
| 29 | Carrie Schreiner | AGI Sport | +1.791s | 48 | 29 | Rodrigues | +1.343s | 53 |
| 30 | Zhenrui Chi | Prema | +1.850s | 46 | 30 | Schreiner | +1.656s | 51 |
| 31 | Kamal Mrad | PHM Racing | +1.914s | 51 | 31 | Liu | +1.793s | 46 |
| 32 | Maxi Restrepo | Sainteloc Racing | +1.926s | 50 | 32 | Nobels | +1.812s | 67 |
| 33 | Yuhao Fu | Pinnacle Motorsport | +2.109s | 52 | 33 | Restrepo | 49.559 | 50 |
| 34 | Aurelia Nobels | Sainteloc Racing | +2.157s | 54 | 34 | Stack | +2.146s | 66 |
| 35 | Everett Stack | PHM Racing | +2.220s | 57 | 35 | Fu | +2.967s | 51 |