Home News Tsolov has fastest lap deleted but still tops Spanish F4 practice

Tsolov has fastest lap deleted but still tops Spanish F4 practice

by Ida Wood

Photo: Spanish F4

Nikola Tsolov set the fastest lap in both Spanish Formula 4 free practice sessions at Navarra, although had his best lap in FP1 deleted.

Track limits was a big issue in the first of the Saturday morning sessions, with Manuel Espirito Santo, Georg Kelstrup and Hugh Barter recieving stop-go penalties for repeated violations, and Jesse Carrasquedo Jr, Barter, Timoteusz Kucharczyk, Marcos Flack, Ricardo Escotto and Daniel Mavlyutov also getting black flagged.

Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael was the early pacesetter, leading the way for the first third of the 40-minute session.

He was eventually usurped by Monlau Motorsport’s Robert de Haan, who improved several times to bring the pace down to 1m41.072s.

Campos Racing’s drivers went for flying laps as the session reached its halfway point, and Tsolov, the debuting Noah Stromsted and Barter filled the places immediately below de Haan.

Stromsted then set a 1m40.303s, a lap that put him over a third of a second clear of Tsolov and over three quarters of a second up on the returning Jesse Carrasquedo Jr, another Campos team-mate.

Tsolov responded with a 1m40.190s laptime, but after 10 minutes that was deleted and Stromsted returned to the top ahead of MP Motorsport’s Kirill Smal by 0.020s.

By that point the Campos drivers had already stopped going for flying laps, so Tsolov did not have time to try to improve on the sixth place he had been demoted to with his second-best 1m40.677s lap.

Drivex School’s Daniel Nogales went third fastest with his final lap, putting him ahead of MP’s Valerio Rinicella and Nael.

Although there were many warning flags and deleted laptimes due to track limits in FP2, only Ricardo Gracia was penalised with a stop-go penalty and this time Tsolov kept his fastest lap.

It was Global Racing Service’s Vladivslav Ryabov who was fastest early on, before Smal became the first driver into the 1m41s and then the 1m40s.

Campos left it even later this time to send its drivers out for flying laps, and Stromsted topped the times with just over 10 minutes to go.

Barter brought the pace down to 1m40.553s with six-and-a-half minutes remaining, then Stromsted set a 1m40.388s lap to reclaim first place.

Tsolov was a third of a second down, but was able to improve and set a 1m40.249s, the fastest lap of the two sessions combined. He and his team-mates pitted shortly after as they filled the top three positions, then in the final minute Smal jumped up to fourth place to head his MP team-mates Rinicella, Kucharczyk and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak.

Free practice results

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Nikola Tsolov Campos Racing 1m40.249s 18
2 Noah Stromsted Campos Racing 1m40.303s +0.054s 22
3 Kirill Smal MP Motorsport 1m40.323s +0.074s 24
4 Daniel Nogales Drivex School 1m40.545s +0.296s 21
5 Hugh Barter Campos Racing 1m40.553s +0.304s 18
6 Valerio Rinicella MP Motorsport 1m40.660s +0.411s 30
7 Theophile Nael Sainteloc Racing 1m40.661s +0.412s 35
8 Gael Julien Drivex School 1m40.785s +0.536s 25
9 Timoteusz Kucharczyk MP Motorsport 1m40.802s +0.553s 29
10 Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak MP Motorsport 1m40.818s +0.569s 27
11 Jesse Carrasquedo Jr Campos Racing 1m40.933s +0.684s 24
12 Max Arkhangelisky Drivex School 1m49.941s +0.692s 31
13 Bruno del Pino Drivex School 1m41.008s +0.759s 31
14 Robert de Haan Monlau Motorsport 1m41.021s +0.772s 38
15 Georg Kelstrup Campos Racing 1m41.025s +0.776s 21
16 Christian Ho MP Motorsport 1m41.050s +0.801s 27
17 Max Mayer Formula de Campeones 1m41.109s +0.860s 33
18 Miron Pingasov MP Motorsport 1m41.154s +0.905s 30
19 Sebastian Gravlund MP Motorsport 1m41.187s +0.938s 30
20 Jef Machiels Monlau Motorsport 1m41.263s +1.014s 36
21 Vladislav Ryabov GRS 1m41.324s +1.075s 37
22 Manuel Espirito Santo Campos Racing 1m41.331s +1.082s 19
23 Julius Dinesen Formula de Campeones 1m41.403s +1.154s 30
24 Ricardo Gracia GRS 1m41.490s +1.241s 36
25 Alvaro Garcia Formula de Campeones 1m41.526s +1.277s 31
26 Marcos Flack GRS 1m41.687s +1.438s 37
27 Niels Koolen Monlau Motorsport 1m41.792s +1.543s 43
28 Ricardo Escotto Cram Motorsport 1m42.083s +1.834s 31
29 Theodor Jensen Sainteloc Racing 1m42.400s +2.151s 33
30 Daniel Mavlyutov GRS 1m42.775s +2.526s 37