US Racing’s Ferreira fastest in Italian F4 pre-event testing at Imola

Photo: ACI Sport

The 38-car Italian Formula 4 field was split into three groups for pre-event testing at Imola, and US Racing’s Matheus Ferreira was fastest overall.

There were three sessions for each group, and Jenzer Motorsport led the way in the opening session for Group A.

Reno Francot set a 1m45.993s to lead team-mates Ethan Ischer and Enea Frey by 0.591 and 0.689 seconds, with Real Racing Team’s Luca Viisoreanu a further 0.005s behind and best of the rest in fourth. Maffi Racing’s Nathanel Berreby was unable to record a time lap.

The group’s second session was slower, with Francot on top again. This time he set a 1m46.031s and was 0.691s faster than Frey. AKM Motorsport’s Emanuele Olivieri was 0.929s behind in third, and Ischer was 1.023s off the pace in fourth. Berreby was absent.

Francot was fastest, yet got even slower, in the third session. A 1m46.089s put him on top by 0.588s over Ischer, with Frey and Olivieri 0.622s and 0.624s behind. Viisoreanu was fifth, 0.958s off the top. Olivieri and his team-mates Alexander Savinkov and Wiktor Dobrzanski set personal bests.

Prema locked out the top six positions in Group B’s first session, and it was far more closely contested. Dion Gowda set a 1m45.762s to pip Freddie Slater to top spot by 0.037s, with Tomass Stolcermanis only 0.102s behind. Kean Nakamura Berta, Alex Powell and Rashid Al Dhaheri completed a top six covered by 0.552s, while PHM Racing’s Davide Larini and Andrej Petrovic were also within a second of the pace.

Larini improved to 1m46.394s in session two, which made him the fastest driver in the mid-afternoon. Slater and PHM’s Maximilian Popov were just 0.047s and 0.073s behind, and there was 0.774s between top spot and PHM’s Everett Stack in 11th.

Gowda’s benchmark was beaten by a 1m45.708s from Slater in session three. Powell and Gowda lapped within 0.2s of Slater, with Stolcermanis trailing by 0.216s and Larini improving again to 1m46.031s in fifth. BVM Racing’s Jan Koller, Gowda and Stolcermanis were the only drivers not to find more pace.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi pipped US’s Akshay Bohra to the fastest lap in Group C’s opening session, with 0.012s splitting the pair. Alvise Rodella was third fastest, 0.363s slower than team-mate Yamakoshi’s 1m45.892s, and Ferreira was a further 0.016s behind in fourth. Gustav Jonsson made it three VAR drivers in the top five.

Yamakoshi lowered the pace to 1m45.439s in session two, and opened out a 0.403s gap to Bohra. Ferreira and Jonsson were half a second back, and four others were within a second of the new benchmark laptime.

In the day’s final session a new fastest lap was set. Ferreira set a 1m45.416s, going 0.04s faster than Jonsson and 0.086s quicker than Yamakoshi. Bohra and team-mate Maxim Rehm were 0.273s and 0.456s behind, and VAR’s Lin Hodenius was slowest as he joined Yamakoshi in failing to improve his pace. It meant Yamakoshi was knocked from first place in the test by 0.023s.

Test results