US Racing’s Edu Robinson tops post-season Italian F4 test at Misano

Photo: ACI Sport

US Racing’s Edu Robinson was fastest in the two-day post-season Italian Formula 4 test at Misano.

The 31-car field was split into two groups, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Maximilian Popov led the way in the first session with a 1m36.916s lap. His team-mate Francisco Macedo was just 0.069 seconds slower than him, and PHM Racing’s Alexander Savinkov was third.

Kabir Anurag came to the fore in the other group, setting a 1m35.647s to lead team-mate Robinson by 0.176s. Luka Sammalisto and Maxim Rehm made it a US lockout of the top four places, with the quartet covered by 0.302s. Alex Powell was best of the rest for R-ace GP.

Savinkov topped Group B’s second session, a 1m36.357s putting him 0.305s clear of Sasha Bondarev. He was driving for AKM Motorsport, but would switch to Prema for the second day. Maximilian Popov (US) was a further 0.037s back, and Macedo (VAR) was fourth.

Robinson set the benchmark laptime, a 1m35.215s, in Group A’s second session. Powell and his R-ace team-mate Emanuele Olivieri were his closest rivals in that session.

The fastest time went to Robinson again in session three, and team-mate Maxim Rehm was 0.184s behind. Anurag made it a US 1-2-3.

Bondarev was quickest in Group B, and there was just 0.099s between himself and fifth place.

VAR’s Dante Vinci and Robinson topped the day’s final sessions of track action on Sunday evening.

The teams were back on track the next day, and AS Motorsport’s Andrea Dupe topped Group B’s session five with a 1m36.693s lap, pipping Vinci by 0.11s.

Rehm was quickest in Group A, and got within 0.06s of Robinson’s benchmark time. Luka Sammalisto was 0.09s slower than Rehm, which brought him up to third overall, and Anurag was a further 0.061s behind to take fourth place overall.

Macedo led Savinkov by 0.192s in the next session, then beat Dupe by 0.163s, while Robinson returned to the top in his group but could not beat his earlier pace. Rehm and Gabriel Gomez made it an all-US top three.

In the following session, Sammalisto pipped Rehm by 0.012s, Gomez by 0.084s and Robinson by 0.121s.

The test ended with Macedo on top of his group once more, but only 11th overall, and the final session going to Powell by 0.047s over Olivieri.

Test results