Trident’s Bilinski fastest again in post-season FREC test at Mugello

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

Trident’s Roman Bilinski toppped a test for Formula Regional and Formula 4 teams at Mugello this week.

Only F4 teams took to the track on Monday, and had two sessions. US Racing’s Gianmarco Pradel topped the first, stting a 1m49.553s fairly early on to lead AKM Motorsport’s Alex Powell by 0.265 seconds. Matheus Ferreira (US Racing) was 0.433s behind in third, with Kabir Anurag (US Racing) and Gustav Jonsson (Van Amersfoort Racing) 0.7s off the pace and the only other drivers within a second of Pradel.

The afternoon session was significantly slower as rain hit, and Ferreira was fastest by 1.108s with a 2m10.583s lap. Just 0.073s split Johnsson and PHM Racing’s James Egozi in second and third, with Pradel 1.923s behind in fourth.

Tuesday began with more F4 action on a damp track, and Jonsson set a 2m02.230s to go fastest by 0.675s over Powell. Egozi was third but 1.955s off the pace.

Next out was the 30-strong continent of FRegional cars, with the track still damp, and Bilinski waited until his final lap to top the times with a 1m50.502s. ART Grand Prix’s Alessandro Giusti was second fastest, 0.425s behind, with Prema’s James Wharton and MP Motorsport’s Nikhil Bohra 0.623s and 0.690s behind respectively in third and fourth.

Jonsson was fastest again in the next F4 session, leading Ferreira by 0.54s and Pradel by 0.627s with a 1m50.732s lap.

The track had finally dried in time for the second FRegional sesson and Bilinski set a 1m43.137s. VAR’s Brando Badoer was 0.349s behind in second, Bohra was 0.544s back in third, Prema’s Rafael Camara was a further 0.025s behind in fourth, MP’s Valerio Rinicella was fifth, Trident’s Niko Lacorte was sixth and Wharton was 0.883s off the pace in seventh.

A new fastest lap was set for F4 in their next session, with Jonsson posting a 1m47.807s. Egozi was 0.931s slower in second but one of nine to beat Monday’s benchmark time.

Laptimes were very slightly slower when FREC headed back out, with Bilinski coming 0.013s short of his previous benchmark. He was still fastest by 0.217s over Race Performance Motorsport’s Noah Stromsted, with Badoer third and R-P-M’s Giovanni Machio in fourth. The top nine were covered by 0.989s.

All but two of the F4 drivers improved their pace in the final Tuesday session, with Jonsson again on top and setting a 1m47.326s. Ferreira was 1.17s behind in second (more than the gap between second and 13th), and just 0.017s ahead of AKM’s Gabriel Gomez.

The final FRegional session was the closest, with 0.022s splitting Bilinski and Bohra at the top. Stromsted was 0.062s behind in third, while MP’s Nikita Bedrin and Maschio were 0.344s back and joint fourth fastest.

FRegional drivers ran in the morning and afternoon on Wednesday, and Stromsted lowered the pace to 1m42.809s in the morning. Bohra was 0.321s behind in second, and Bilinski was third.

Bilinski returned to the top in the afternoon and set the test’s fastest lap: a 1m42.574s. He led Stromsted by 0.358s and Badoer by 0.517s. Rinicella and Erwin Creed were the only drivers not to improve on their Tuesday pace.

Test results