Photo: ACI Sport
Maxim Rehm, Davide Larini and Kean Nakamura Berta shared the poles in Euro 4’s dramatic qualifying sessions at Monza.
The track remained wet on Saturday morning from the previous day’s rain, and US Racing’s drivers were the first to venture out in Q1. Akshay Bohra went fastest, leading Rehm, Edu Robinson and Kabir Anurag after five minutes.
Rehm lowered the pace to 1m53.375s a minute later, as all four improved. Jenzer Motorsport’s Enea Frey got closest to the quartet, before he caused red flags to wave as the session entered its second half and he had all of his laptimes deleted.
That promoted ART Grand Prix’s debuting Bianca Bustamante to fifth and Prema’s Italian Formula 4 champion Freddie Slater to sixth, but he was over six seconds slower than Rehm.
Qualifying did restart, and the next round of flying laps came in with a minute left on the clock. PHM Racing’s Larini set a 1m52.751s to lead Bohra by 0.072 seconds, with Slater just behind him and US’s Jack Beeton in fourth. Rehm left it until there was 25s to go before he posted his first flyer, and he reclaimed top spot by a second over Prema’s Nakamura.
Bohra slashed the gap to 0.134s, with Beeton and Slater then demoting Nakamura to fifth. The chequered flag waved and nobody improved, in part due to red flags waving again shortly after the clock hit zero. Pole was secured for Rehm, with points leader Slater in fourth and his main rival Hiyu Yamakoshi down in 17th.
Q2 was similarly as dramatic, and led by R-ace GP’s Luka Sammalisto early on. Larini took over at the top with a 1m52.680s set six minutes in, with Bohra and Robinson soon occupying second and third.
It became an R-ace one-two when Enzo Yeh set a 1m52.897s in the session’s second half, and Real Racing Team’s Luca Viisoreanu surprised to go fifth fastest ahead of AKM Motorsdport’s Emanuele Olivieri. At this point Slater and Beeton had not even set flying laps.
Sammalisto moved back ahead with five minutes to go, setting a 1m52.320s. Nakamura rose to third, and Slater’s first proper effort put him 19th. Moments later Nakamura was back down to sixth as Viisoreanu and Yeh improved in second and third. He responded though, breaking into the 1m51s while team-mate Slater fell to 23rd.
Jenzer’s Reno Francot and Prema’s Dion Gowda challenged Nakamura’s pace with three minutes to go, which left Slater and Beeton at the bottom of the timesheet again, then a 1m51.585s from Nakamura put him 0.43s ahead of Sammalisto.
Prema’s Alex Powell edged into second, and with 80s remaining Slater leapt up to sixth. Bohra used the slipstream to beat Nakamura by 0.048s, as Robinson and PHM’s Maximilian Popov also broke the 1m52s barrier.
In the last minute Larini went fastest by 0.165s, Powell took third and session-ending red flags waved. Slater ended Q2 in 10th, behind Viisoreanu, while Yamakoshi and Beeton were 15th and 16th.
Drivers’ second-best laptimes from qualifying set race three’s grid, and Nakamura claimed pole by just 0.012s over Powell. Larini, Sammalisto and Viisoreanu completed an unexpected top five.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Maxim Rehm US Racing 1m51.715s
2 Akshay Bohra US Racing +0.134s
3 Jack Beeton US Racing +0.555s
4 Freddie Slater Prema +0.679s
5 Kean Nakamura Berta Prema +0.915s
6 Gianmarco Pradel US Racing +0.948s
7 Davide Larini PHM Racing +1.036s
8 Alex Powell Prema +1.296s
9 Dion Gowda Prema +1.413s
10 Emanuele Olivieri AKM Motorsport +1.463s
Race 2 grid
1 Larini 1m51.372s
2 Bohra +0.165s
3 Powell +0.212s
4 Nakamura +0.213s
5 Edu Robinson US Racing +0.526s
6 Maximilian Popov PHM Racing +0.615s
7 Luka Sammalisto R-ace GP +0.643s
8 Reno Francot Jenzer Motorsport +0.766s
9 Luca Viisoreanu Real Racing Team +0.772s
10 Slater +0.845s
Race 3 grid
1 Nakamua 1m51.994s
2 Powell +0.012s
3 Larini +0.148s
4 Sammalisto +0.326s
5 Viisoreanu +0.464s
6 Enzo Yeh R-ace GP +0.512s
7 Bohra +0.603s
8 Ethan Ischer Jenzer Motorsport +0.788s
9 Slater +0.852s
10 Beeton +0.957s