Home Formula 4Italian F4 Taponen on top again in Italian F4 and F1 Academy team test at Misano

Taponen on top again in Italian F4 and F1 Academy team test at Misano

by Ida Wood

Photo: F4 UAE

Ferrari junior Tuukka Taponen was fastest in testing for Italian Formula 4 and F1 Academy teams at Misano this week.

The 44-car entry list was split into two groups for the two days of running, with Group A running first on Tuesday and Group B on Wednesday.

US Racing’s Zachary David set the pace in the opening session, a 1m36.429s lap putting him 0.187 seconds ahead of BVM Racing’s Alfio Spina.

Prema’s Marta Garcia was the top F1 Academy runner, 3.302s off the pace, while team-mate Chloe Chong was 5.899s slower than David and Bianca Bustamante was 6.09s off. That did not appear to be a representative pace, as all three improved through the test.

Taponen topped Group B’s first session with a 1m35.995s lap, 0.112s faster than Prema team-mate James Wharton and with Ugo Ugochukwu (Prema) and Brando Badoer (Van Amersfoort Racing) both just under half a second off.

Spina set a 1m36.189s to head the next session by just 0.034s over the Formula Regional race-winner Hadrien David who was driving for R-ace GP. Zachary David was 0.048s back in third. US’s Gianmarco Pradel was the only driver not to improve their pace.

Wharton led Ugochukwu by 0.267s in the next session, with all of the drivers improving as the track warmed up.

James Egozi, leader of the WSK Super Master Series on OK karts, started the afternoon on top as all but two of Group A’s drivers improved.

He set a 1m35.571s, while Taponen led Group B with a day-topping 1m36.277s, going 0.133s faster than Badoer. Wharton was third fastest but he and Reno Francot failed to improve their pace.

US’s Kacper Sztuka pipped Pradel (who would not improve on day two) to top spot in Group A’s final Tuesday session by 0.084s, and Wharton was a similarly tight 0.086s ahead of VAR’s Ivan Domingues in Group B.

Wharton was fastest again as Group B started Wednesday’s action, then Egozi was fastest again as Group A took to the track.

Taponen became the first driver into the 1m34s in session six, leading Wharton and Italian F4 champion Andrea Kimi Antonelli who had taken over from Davide Larini in one of the cars of his family’s AKM Motorsport team.

PHM Racing’s Valentin Kluss came to the fore by just 0.012s in the session after, with the top 13 covered by a second.

Antonelli started the afternoon on top by 0.04s over Taponen and 0.064s over Arvid Lindblad, who was the fastest improver as this time less than a second split the top 17.

Sztuka lowered his pace to 1m35.011s to top Group A’s seventh session, then the test ended with Taponen pipping Wharton to the overall top spot by 0.009s in their final session and then Kluss topping the times in the last hour of track action.

Test results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Tuukka Taponen Prema 1m34.962s 153
2 James Wharton Prema 1m34.971s +0.009s 155
3 Kacper Sztuka US Racing 1m35.011s +0.049s 174
4 Andrea Kimi Antonelli AKM Motorsport 1m35.114s +0.152s 85
5 Valentin Kluss PHM Racing 1m35.146s +0.184s 175
6 Ivan Domingues Van Amersfoort Racing 1m35.159s +0.197s 174
7 Brando Badoer Van Amersfoort Racing 1m35.207s +0.245s 184
8 Zachary David US Racing 1m35.210s +0.248s 173
9 Alfio Spina BVM Racing 1m35.227s +0.265s 170
10 Ugo Ugochukwu Prema 1m35.249s +0.287s 157
11 Arvid Lindblad Prema 1m35.321s +0.359s 138
12 Gianmarco Pradel US Racing 1m35.392s +0.430s 171
13 James Egozi PHM Racing 1m35.414s +0.452s 149
14 Akshay Bohra US Racing 1m35.417s +0.455s 174
15 Reno Francot Jenzer Motorsport 1m35.458s +0.496s 152
16 Matheus Ferreira Van Amersfoort Racing 1m35.468s +0.506s 162
17 Niko Lacorte Prema 1m35.469s +0.507s 154
18 Giacomo Pedrini Newman Motorsport 1m35.484s +0.522s 194
19 Jack Beeton Van Amersfoort Racing 1m35.567s +0.605s 177
20 Ethan Ischer Jenzer Motorsport 1m35.584s +0.622s 159
21 Hadrien David R-ace GP 1m35.662s +0.700s 79
22 Rashid Al Dhaheri Iron Lynx/Prema 1m35.762s +0.800s 166
23 Kim Hwarang Jenzer Motorsport 1m35.806s +0.844s 174
24 Raphael Narac R-ace GP 1m35.867s +0.905s 172
25 #38 AKM Motorsport 1m35.875s +0.913s 163
26 Luca Viisoreanu Real Racing Team 1m35.906s +0.944s 185
27 Andrea Frassineti BVM Racing 1m35.975s +1.013s 160
28 Ruiqi Liu US Racing 1m36.017s +1.055s 155
29 Ariel Elkin Jenzer Motorsport 1m36.018s +1.056s 170
30 Matteo Quintarelli R-ace GP 1m36.113s +1.151s 167
31 Davide Larini AKM Motorsport 1m36.114s +1.152s 86
32 Tina Hausmann AKM Motorsport 1m36.208s +1.246s 180
33 Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi PHM Racing 1m36.243s +1.281s 138
34 Victoria Blokhina PHM Racing 1m36.271s +1.309s 164
35 Marta Garcia Prema 1m36.305s +1.343s 78
36 Aurelia Nobels Iron Lynx 1m36.475s +1.513s 158
37 Ismail Akhmed Van Amersfoort Racing 1m36.609s +1.647s 183
38 Manuel Quondamcarlo AS Motorsport 1m36.711s +1.749s 190
39 MB28 [Gen1] Promotional Talent 1m36.979s +2.017s 85
40 Kabir Anurag R-ace GP 1m37.003s +2.041s 173
41 Bianca Bustamante Prema 1m37.231s +2.269s 76
42 Guido Luchetti Airflow Racing 1m37.323s +2.361s 66
43 Emir Tanju Jenzer Motorsport 1m38.076s +3.114s 158
44 Chloe Chong Prema 1m38.208s +3.246s 86
45 Max Cuccarese AS Motorsport 1m39.452s +4.490s 105