Home Formula 4ADAC F4 VAR’s Ollie Bearman fastest on first day of F4 testing at Red Bull Ring

VAR’s Ollie Bearman fastest on first day of F4 testing at Red Bull Ring

by Ida Wood

ADAC and Italian Formula 4 teams had their pre-season Red Bull Ring test begin with snow on Monday, as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ollie Bearman set the pace.

An overnight blizzard that was still despositing some of the white stuff in the morning left the Spielberg area coated in snow, although on-track action was still able to take place on a clear circuit.

There weren’t too many laps set on the slick track surface, and laptimes reached the 1m35s courtesy of Jenzer Motorsport’s Francesco Braschi. He was just 0.022 seconds faster than team-mate Santiago Ramos, with BWR Motorsports’ Taylor Barnard third, Prema’s Sebastian Montoya fourth and Bearman completing a top five covered by one second.

Italian shifter karter Leonardo Bizzotto and AS Motorsport’s Kacper Sztuka, both yet to sign deals to race this year, were sixth and seventh for BVM Racing and AS Motorsport respectively.

The pace improved significantly in the afternoon, with R-ace GP’s Victor Bernier immediately beating the morning’s best with a 1m34.381s lap. Bearman quickly brought the benchmark pace into the 1m32s, with Iron Lynx’s Leonardo Fornaroli bettering him 22 minutes into the five-hour session.

Montoya then went fastest before Bearman responded with a 1m32.259s, but Montoya replied again before the end of the first hour. R-ace GP’s Sami Meguetounif then halted proceedings when he hit trouble on track, and on the restart it was Fornaroli who was first to break into the 1m31s.

He stayed there for almost an hour-and-a-half before Bearman set his 1m31.541s lap that would stand as the day’s fastest. Fornaroli was second fastest, with Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior and karter Andrea Kimi Antonelli completing the top three for AKM Motorsport.

There were further red flag stoppages, and the afternoon session also featured BWR’s Valentino Catalano and AS’s Toni Kayla Naude.

Charlie Wurz, son of Le Mans 24 Hours winner Alex and has raced this year as a factory Exprit driver in karting, was testing for Prema.

Test results

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Ollie Bearman Van Amersfoort Racing 1m31.541s 89
2 Leonardo Fornaroli Iron Lynx 1m31.616s +0.075s 68
3 Andrea Kimi Antonelli AKM Motorsport 1m31.703s +0.162s 78
4 Victor Bernier R-ace GP 1m31.718s +0.177s 117
5 Sebastian Montoya Prema 1m31.728s +0.187s 105
6 Joshua Dufek Van Amersfoort Racing 1m31.811s +0.270s 89
7 Kirill Smal Prema 1m31.959s +0.418s 102
8 Tim Tramnitz US Racing 1m31.985s +0.444s 79
9 Francesco Braschi Jenzer Motorsport 1m31.998s +0.457s 86
10 Bence Valint Van Amersfoort Racing 1m32.038s +0.497s 87
11 Nicolas Baptiste Cram Motorsport 1m32.049s +0.508s 104
12 Vlad Lomko US Racing 1m32.071s +0.530s 82
13 Maya Weug Iron Lynx 1m32.127s +0.586s 102
14 Francesco Simonazzi BVM Racing 1m32.144s +0.603s 105
15 Kacper Sztuka AS Motorsport 1m32.186s +0.645s 81
16 Santiago Ramos Jenzer Motorsport 1m32.244s +0.703s 94
17 Hamda Al Qubaisi Prema 1m32.350s +0.809s 103
18 Nikita Bedrin Van Amersfoort Racing 1m32.378s +0.837s 92
19 Eron Rexhepi BVM Racing 1m32.445s +0.904s 93
20 Leonardo Bizzotto BVM Racing 1m32.496s +0.955s 83
21 Charlie Wurz Prema 1m32.498s +0.957s 106
22 Levente Revesz AKM Motorsport 1m32.534s +0.993s 86
23 Conrad Laursen Prema 1m32.555s +1.014s 103
24 Taylor Barnard BWR Motorsports 1m32.667s +1.126s 68
25 Valentino Catalano BWR Motorsports 1m32.679s +1.138s 65
26 Pietro Armanni Iron Lynx 1m32.955s +1.414s 84
27 Jorge Garciarce Jenzer Motorsport 1m32.967s +1.426s 99
28 Pedro Perino DR Formula 1m33.031s +1.490s 90
29 Elia Sperandio Jenzer Motorsport 1m33.148s +1.607s 99
30 Marcus Amand R-ace GP 1m33.151s +1.610s 68
31 Sami Meguetounif R-ace GP 1m33.356s +1.815s 47
32 Georgis Markogiannis Cram Motorsport 1m33.485s +1.944s 68
33 Vittorio Catino Cram Motorsport 1m33.694s +2.153s 95
34 Lorenzo Patrese AKM Motorsport 1m35.136s +3.595s 86
35 Toni Kayla Naude AS Motorsport 1m36.644s +5.103s 50