Home Formula 4Italian F4 Tramnitz on top, Mercedes’ Antonelli fifth in Italian F4 practice one

Tramnitz on top, Mercedes’ Antonelli fifth in Italian F4 practice one

by Ida Wood

Photo: ACI Sport

US Racing’s Tim Tramnitz set the pace in the first Italian Formula 4 practice session at the Red Bull Ring.

There were laptime improvements almost all the way through the 40-minute morning session, with Iron Lynx’s Ferrari junior Maya Weug quickest out of the box.

The pace quickly improved, with BVM Racing’s Francesco Simonazzi becoming the first driver to break into the 1m36s and then the 1m35s early on.

Tramnitz then knocked two seconds off the benchmark pace with improvements in two successive laps, and then going faster again straight after that meant he sat at the top in a 1m32.726s after 15 minutes of the session.

Points leader Ollie Bearman was second fastest at this point, ahead of Mucke Motorsport’s Joshua Duerksen and Iron Lynx’s Leonardo Fornaroli.

Duerksen soon upped his pace, trimming four tenths of a second off Tramnitz’s benchmark. Bearman’s Van Amersfoort Racing team-mate Joshua Dufek then jumped to the top halfway through thr session, setting a 1m32.087s, and that stood as the best lap for 10 minutes before Duerksen struck back with the first sub-1m32s lap by half a second.

Tramnitz was immediately with him on pace though, while Prema’s debuting Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli briefly rose up to third, and with six minutes to go Tramnitz returned to first place with a 1m31.356s.

Duerksen’s best lap deleted for violating track limits at the penultimate corner, but he set another strong effort to remain in second place before a full course yellow period occurred with three-and-a-half minutes left on the clock when Jenzer’s Francesco Braschi lost his front wing.

The top two dived into the pits before the track went green again with 20s remaining, and it was Dufek who ended up in third place ahead of Montoya and Antonelli.

Bearman was shuffled down to eighth, the last person within a second of Tramnitz’s pace.

Free practice results

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Tim Tramnitz US Racing 1m31.356s 18
2 Joshua Duerksen Mucke Motorsport 1m31.659s +0.303s 18
3 Joshua Dufek Van Amersfoort Racing 1m31.826s +0.470s 19
4 Sebastian Montoya Prema 1m31.916s +0.560s 17
5 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Prema 1m32.075s +0.719s 20
6 Nikita Bedrin Van Amersfoort Racing 1m32.130s +0.774s 20
7 Kirill Smal Prema 1m32.227s +0.871s 19
8 Ollie Bearman Van Amersfoort Racing 1m32.295s +0.939s 16
9 Francesco Braschi Jenzer Motorsport 1m32.427s +1.071s 18
10 Leonardo Fornaroli Iron Lynx 1m32.455s +1.099s 21
11 Pitor Wisnicki Jenzer Motorsport 1m32.528s +1.172s 18
12 Leonardo Bizzotto BVM Racing 1m32.574s +1.218s 18
13 Francesco Simonazzi BVM Racing 1m32.606s +1.250s 20
14 Bence Valint Van Amersfoort Racing 1m32.687s +1.331s 21
15 Nicolas Baptiste Cram Motorsport 1m32.855s +1.499s 20
16 Kacper Sztuka AS Motorsport 1m32.923s +1.567s 21
17 Cenyu Han Van Amersfoort Racing 1m32.947s +1.591s 19
18 Santiago Ramos Jenzer Motorsport 1m33.077s +1.721s 20
19 Conrad Laursen Prema 1m33.119s +1.763s 17
20 Erick Zuniga Mucke Motorsport 1m33.126s +1.770s 16
21 Charlie Wurz Prema 1m33.185s +1.829s 17
22 Samir Ben Jenzer Motorsport 1m33.264s +1.908s 19
23 Pedro Perino US Racing 1m33.281s +1.925s 18
24 Pietro Armanni Iron Lynx 1m33.292s +1.936s 21
25 Georgios Markogiannis Cram Motorsport 1m33.346s +1.990s 21
26 Hamda Al Qubaisi Prema 1m33.375s +2.019s 19
27 Maya Weug Iron Lynx 1m33.402s +2.046s 21
28 Eron Rexhepi BVM Racing 1m33.527s +2.171s 19
29 Jonas Ried Mucke Motorsport 1m33.577s +2.221s 17
30 Lorenzo Patrese AKM Motorsport 1m33.720s +2.364s 16
31 Levente Revesz AKM Motorsport 1m34.107s +2.751s 20
32 Jorge Garciarce Jenzer Motorsport 1m34.352s +2.996s 19