Photo: Spanish F4
Thomas Strauven took a double pole in Spanish Formula 4 qualifying at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit on Saturday.
The day kicked off with practice, and Campos Racing’s Jan Przyrowski set a 1m33.681s to be quickest by 0.09 seconds.
A quarter of the 35-car field spent time at the top once flying laps were being set during the 40-minute session, which was split in two by a red flag period caused by Tecnicar Motorsport’s Aleix Pinera crashing out at turn four.
Pinera is making his single-seater debut this weekend, having finished 17th in the IAME Winter Cup and come 18th in IAME’s Euro Series on X30 Senior karts this year, while 2024 French F4 runner-up Yani Stevenheydens has joined Global Racing Service’s line-up.
He came 13th in the 2025 Spanish F4 Winter Championship then 21st in Eurocup-3’s winter series and is currently 16th in its main championship after doing the first two rounds.
Stevenheydens ended practice in 24th, the first driver to be over a second off the pace. MP Motorsport’s Rene Lammers was Przyrowski’s closest rival, with Strauven (Campos), Ean Eyckmans (MP), Andrej Petrovic (Tecnicar), Vivek Kanthan (Campos) and Reno Francot (MP) also all within a third of a second of him.
Drivex School’s Christopher Feghali topped the timesheet several times but ended practice in 11th.
Qualifying was in the early afternoon, and TC Racing’s Alfio Spina was quickest at first. He led Pinera a third of the way through the 20-minute session, then Pinera improved to 1m35.331s but Strauven moved to the top as he went 0.554s faster than him.
He was not ahead for long, as MP’s Hudson Schwartz set a 1m34.676s. MP’s Juan Cota (MP) and Przyrowski completed a top five covered by a second.
Strauven responded on his next lap with a 1m33.827s, putting him 0.459s clear of Cota, with Przyrowski a further 0.048s behind.
Francot began the session’s second half by edging ahead of Cota by 0.014s, and improved again on his next lap. But Strauven did the same, posting a 1m33.813s to remain on top by 0.22s. Lammers and Przyrowski were less than 0.05s behind Francot.
Przyrowski later cut Strauven’s advantage to 0.113s, and Cota demoted Francot to fourth by 0.001s.
Strauven and Przyrowski made 0.001s gains with five minutes to go, and found more pace on their next laps. A 1m33.69s kept Strauven ahead by 0.086s, as Lammers set two 1m33.9s laps to take and then hold third place.
Nobody improved at the end, locking in a top five featuring Cota and Francot, and also the race two grid set by drivers’ second-best laptimes.
Strauven earned pole for that race by 0.222s over Przyrowski, with Lammers a further 0.019s back while Cota and Francot were fourth and fifth again.
Eyckmans was the top rookie, and will start sixth for both races, with a second covering the top 22 in qualifying.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Thomas Strauven Campos Racing 1m33.690s
2 Jan Przyrowski Campos Racing +0.086s
3 Rene Lammers MP Motorsport +0.235s
4 Juan Cota MP Motorsport +0.342s
5 Reno Francot MP Motorsport +0.343s
6 Ean Eyckmans MP Motorsport +0.395s
7 Santino Panetta TC Racing +0.417s
8 Niklas Schaufler MP Motorsport +0.440s
9 Vivek Kanthan Campos Racing +0.473s
10 Miguel Costa Campos Racing +0.497s
Race 2 grid
1 Strauven 1m33.703s
2 Przyrowski +0.222s
3 Lammers +0.243s
4 Cota +0.383s
5 Francot +0.412s
6 Eyckmans +0.479s
7 Costa +0.505s
8 Schafuler +0.535s
9 Noah Monteiro Campos Racing +0.554s
10 Kanthan +0.569s