Slater tops Italian F4 testing at Vallelunga

Photo: ACI Sport

Prema’s Freddie Slater comfortably set the pace in Italian Formula 4 testing at Vallelunga.

The 35-car field was split into two groups, and US Racing’s Gianmarco Pradel topped Group A’s opening session. A 1m34.660s put him 0.136 seconds ahead of AKM Motorsport’s Emanuele Olivieri, 0.139s up on US team-mate Jack Beeton, 0.153s clear of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Gustav Jonsson and 0.191s ahead of VAR’s Imola star Hiyu Yamakoshi. The top 14 were covered by 0.922s.

Group B featured Prema’s drivers, and Slater set the test’s fastest lap in their first session. His 1m33.986s was a step above everyone else’s pace. Team-mate Tomass Stolcermanis was 0.692s behind in second, meaning he was slower than Pradel, and there was 0.093s between second and sixth.

Yamakoshi improved to 1m34.694s to top Group A’s second session by just 0.018s over US’s Matheus Ferreira, with Akshay Bohra and team-mate Pradel just over 0.2s behind. Session three had the same fastest lap, this time set by Beeton, and Ferreira was again second fastest.

Prema filled the top four places when Group B returned to track, but laptimes were slower than before. Slater set a 1m34.208s to lead Alex Powell by 0.284s, Stolcermanis was 0.334s back in third and Rashid Al Dhaheri was fourth. The gap at the top grew in session three, a 1m34.091s from Slater putting him 0.596s ahead of Stolcermanis.

Half of Group A improved in their final Wednesday session, and Yamakoshi led a VAR top five lockout. He set a 1m34.636s to be fastest by 0.081s over Jonsson, with Lin Hodenius 0.087s off the top.

Powell topped Group B’s fourth session, and his 1m34.307s was a lap he would be unable to improve upon the next day. Stolcermanis was 0.152s behind in second, and PHM Racing’s Davide Larini was third. Slater was absent, and continued to be through Thursday.

Group B went out first on day two of testing, and Stolcermanis improved to 1m34.330s to top session five by 0.014s over PHM’s Maximilian Popov and 0.034s over Powell. That put Stolcermanis and Popov fourth and fifth in the test’s combined classification after Ferreira topped Group A’s fifth session with a 1m34.293s to go second fastest overall.

Pradel and Beeton trailed him by 0.139s and 0.148s in that session, with 0.907s covering the top 16.

Luka Sammalisto put R-ace GP on top of Group B in session six, setting a 1m34.657s to edge Stolcermanis by 0.062s and Jenzer Motorsport’s Enea Frey by 0.081s. Six drivers were within 0.2s of him.

Ferreira was fastest again in Group A, a 1m34.571s putting him 0.029s ahead of Beeton.

Laptimes were slower for Group B in the remaining sessions. Powell led Stolcermanis and Popov by 0.031s and 0.17s respectively in session seven, then was 0.157s clear of Stolcermanis in session eight.

Gains were made in Group A, with Yamakoshi setting a 1m34.230s to move past Ferreira into second place overall. He was fastest in session seven by 0.423s over team-mate Alvise Rodella, another improver, then by 0.236s over Jonsson in session eight.

Test results