Sztuka fastest, title rival Lindblad 14th in test before Italian F4 finale

Photo: ACI Sport

Italian Formula 4 points leader Kacper Sztuka topped the times in testing at Vallelunga ahead of the title-deciding round at the track.

Drivers were given four hours of running on Thursday afternoon in very warm conditions, and R-ace GP’s Raphael Narac was the pacesetter through the first 10 minutes.

His 1m35.816s benchmark was briefly bettered by team-mate Matteo Quintarelli, with Narac moving back to the top with a 1m35.405s laptime.

A few minutes later US Racing’s Akshay Bohra set a 1m35.350s, then Prema’s Arvid Lindblad posted a 1m35.240s. He was only on top for less than half a minute as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Brando Badoer then went 0.274 seconds faster than him and became the first driver into the 1m34s.

Zachary David put US Racing back on top by going just 0.014s faster than Badoer, then Sztuka set two successive improvements to bring the pace down to 1m34.867s.

Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu beat that by 0.028s, but Sztuka’s next lap put him back ahead by 0.057s and the lap after was an improvement of another 0.032s.

After a gap of 10 minutes there was another change at the top as Badoer went 0.459s faster than anyone else, and Sztuka was unable to match that pace until nine minutes after that when he set a 1m34.242s.

Two further improvements kept Sztuka on top for two hours-and-42 minutes before David set a 1m34.135s with 33 minutes left of the session to go.

Prior to that he had been fifth fastest, with Badoer, Prema’s Alex Powell and Ugochukwu filling the top four behind Sztuka.

Once Sztuka was usurpsed, he wasted little time in returning to the top. Two successive improvements from lowered the pace to 1m34.040s, then with five minutes to go he headed back out and improved two more times to get into the 1m33s.

He ended up being the only driver able to achieve that feat, a 1m33.920s putting him 0.191s ahead of Ugochukwu. Badoer, David and Powell were his next closest rivals, and VAR’s Matheus Ferreira was sixth fastest.

After making his car racing debut in the previous round at Mugello, Powell will have a second go at F4 this weekend.

French F4 racer Tom Kalender is on the entry list with PHM Racing, Australian karter Kamal Mrad will race for AKM Motorsport after making his single-eater debut with them in Euro 4, and Jenzer Motorsport is handing Chinese karter Shimo Zhang his first taste of car racing.

Pre-event test results