US Racing’s Gabriel Gomez quickest in Italian F4 practice at Vallelunga

Photo: ACI Sport

US Racing’s Gabriel Gomez was quickest in Italian Formula 4 practice at Vallelunga on Friday, ahead of qualifying later in the day.

The 40-car field was split into two groups, with each getting two half-hour sessions. Group one headed out first, and it was incredibly close at the top.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Maximilian Popov was quickest early on, then Prema’s Kean Nakamura Berta was briefly ahead before Popov brought the pace down into the 1m36s.

Gomez was next to the top, prior to Nakamura and then Popov moving back ahead with small gains. Gomez kept it up, setting a 1m36.331s to reclaim first place.

Soon new names led, as Prema’s Newman Chi went fastest by 0.047 seconds and then US’s Maxim Rehm beat him by 0.052s.

It returned to being a battle between Gomez and Nakamura after that, taking turns at lowering the pace until the latter set a 1m35.654s that proved unbeatable. Gomez was only 0.018s behind, with Popov and Chi 0.036s and 0.054s off top spot. Real Racing Team’s Luca Viisoreanu was 0.156s behind in fifth.

In group two, Prema’s Tomass Stolcermanis was first to lap sub-1m38s, and Dante Vinci (VAR) and Sacha Bondarev (Prema) had spells ahead before the latter’s team-mate Sebastian Wheldon got to the top. Once there he repeatedly lowered the pace until he reached a 1m34.871s just before the end.

Bondarev and Stolcermanis were within 0.2s of his pace, US’s Kabir Anurag was fourth and PHM Racing’s David Cosma Cristofor was fifth.

Rehm kicked off group one’s second session with a 1m37.837s lap, which Gomez swiftly beat. The response from Rehm was a 1m36.201s, but Gomez moved back ahead by 0.163s. Rehm set another personal best next, reclaiming top spot by 0.057s, before Gomez went 0.463s clear.

He improved two more times to lower the pace to 1m34.941s, and was in first place until the final 10 minutes when successive purple laps from Nakamura brought the new benchmark time to 1m34.304s.

Gomez got within 0.048s of him, then with 90s to go inched ahead by 0.008s. Chi, Rehm and R-ace GP’s Emanuele Olivieri were next up and all over 0.5s off the pace.

Anurag began the final session on top, setting a 1m36.836s. Prema’s Salim Hanna Hernandez beat his benchmark by 0.19s, but Anurag then went over a second faster than him.

Bondarev then demoted Anurag again, setting a 1m35.278s, and six minutes later Vinci posted a 1m35.050s.

Stolcermanis was next to lower the pace, to 1m34.946s, and team-mate Wheldon bettered him by 0.149s when he completed the lap he was on. On his next lap, Stolcermanis improved to 1m34.361s,  a laptime nobody would beat but put him third overall in practice’s combined classification.

R-ace’s Guy Albag and Emily Cotty swapped groups after the first sessions. US’s Andrija Kostic was the only driver not to set his personal best in the afternoon.

Free practice results