Photo: Spanish F4 / Fotocar13
Nikola Tsolov was fastest in both practice sessions for Spanish Formula 4’s final round at Barcelona.
Both sessions ran on Saturday morning, with a pre-event test session taking place the day before and being topped by MP Motorsport’s Valerio Rinicella with a 1m46.291s lap.
That pace wasn’t matched in practice, with Tsolov’s fastest lap in FP1 being a 1m46.566s. Global Racing Service’s Daniel Mavlyutov caused an early red flag in that session, with team-mate Marcos Flack topping the times at that point.
Drivex School’s Gael Julien lowered the pace to 1m47.949s, then Campos Racing’s champion Tsolov set a 1m47.127s to go almost two thirds of a second clear.
Rinicella toppled him with a 1m47.026s lap, just as JHR Developments’ Noah Lisle served a three-minute stop-and-go penalty for track limits abuse.
Campos’s Noah Stromsted rose to the top as the pace moved into the 1m46s, and Tsolov then returned to first place by 1m46.606s lap just before yellow flags came out. He improved on that next time by with what would ultimately be the fastest lap of practice, although Stromsted did go 0.030s faster before his lap was deleted for exceeding track limits.
There were several newcomers on track, with Sainteloc Racing adding a third car for United States F4 racer Carl Bennett, Monlau Motorsport running ADAC F4 racer Jonas Ried in its third car and Cram Motorsport revamping its line-up to run Argentia’s Francisco Soldavini and Australian F4 racer Francisco Soldavini.
Flack started FP2 on top, with Julien, Timoteusz Kucharczyk, Stromsted and Christian Ho all going fastest before Tsolov laid down a long-standing 1m47.250s benchmark.
His time in first place was prolonged by Mavlyutov causing a red flag stoppage again, and Hugh Barter usurped Tsolov with a 1m47.073s lap. Kucharczyk became the first driver in the 1m46s again, then Tsolov went quickest again by setting a 1m46.644s.
Barter, Kucharczyk and Monlau Motorsport’s Robert de Haan were the only drivers in the overall top 10 to go faster in FP2 than in FP1.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos Racing | 1m46.566s | 28 | |
| 2 | Hugh Barter | Campos Racing | 1m46.648s | +0.082s | 28 |
| 3 | Noah Stromsted | Campos Racing | 1m46.686s | +0.120s | 29 |
| 4 | Timoteusz Kucharczyk | MP Motorsport | 1m46.693s | +0.127s | 30 |
| 5 | Christian Ho | MP Motorsport | 1m46.738s | +0.172s | 27 |
| 6 | Jesse Carrasquedo Jr | Campos Racing | 1m46.748s | +0.182s | 28 |
| 7 | Kirill Smal | MP Motorsport | 1m46.842s | +0.276s | 28 |
| 8 | Valerio Rinicella | MP Motorsport | 1m46.883s | +0.317s | 29 |
| 9 | Georg Kelstrup | Campos Racing | 1m47.015s | +0.449s | 29 |
| 10 | Robert de Haan | Monlau Motorsport | 1m47.179s | +0.613s | 27 |
| 11 | Manuel Espirito Santo | Campos Racing | 1m47.201s | +0.635s | 27 |
| 12 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | MP Motorsport | 1m47.252s | +0.686s | 28 |
| 13 | Daniel Nogales | Drivex School | 1m47.298s | +0.732s | 31 |
| 14 | Sebastian Gravlund | MP Motorsport | 1m47.312s | +0.746s | 29 |
| 15 | Jonas Ried | Monlau Motorsport | 1m47.408s | +0.842s | 35 |
| 16 | Max Mayer | Formula de Campeones | 1m47.448s | +0.882s | 33 |
| 17 | Miron Pingasov | MP Motorsport | 1m47.470s | +0.904s | 27 |
| 18 | Bruno del Pino | Drivex School | 1m47.529s | +0.963s | 30 |
| 19 | Vladislav Ryabov | GRS | 1m47.602s | +1.036s | 30 |
| 20 | Jef Machiels | Monlau Motorsport | 1m47.680s | +1.114s | 34 |
| 21 | Noah Lisle | JHR Developments | 1m47.816s | +1.250s | 30 |
| 22 | Theophile Nael | Sainteloc Racing | 1m47.912s | +1.346s | 32 |
| 23 | Marcos Flack | GRS | 1m47.913s | +1.347s | 27 |
| 24 | Alvaro Gracia | Formula de Campeones | 1m47.919s | +1.353s | 29 |
| 25 | Daniel Guinchard | JHR Developments | 1m47.937s | +1.371s | 28 |
| 26 | Gael Julien | Drivex School | 1m47.949s | +1.383s | 32 |
| 27 | Gianmarco Pradel | Cram Motorsport | 1m48.207s | +1.641s | 30 |
| 28 | Ricardo Gracia | GRS | 1m48.248s | +1.682s | 34 |
| 29 | Max Arkhangelsky | Drivex School | 1m48.266s | +1.700s | 31 |
| 30 | Viktoria Blokhina | Drivex School | 1m48.539s | +1.973s | 35 |
| 31 | Francisco Soldavini | Cram Motorsport | 1m49.163s | +2.597s | 28 |
| 32 | Theodor Jensen | Sainteloc Racing | 1m49.176s | +2.610s | 17 |
| 33 | Carl Bennett | Sainteloc Racing | 1m49.933s | +3.367s | 33 |
| 34 | Daniel Mavlyutov | GRS | 1m49.998s | +3.432s | 20 |