Yamakoshi fastest in Italian F4 practice at Paul Ricard

Photo: Fotospeedy

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi set the fastest lap across Italian Formula 4’s two practice sessions at Paul Ricard.

Yamakoshi set the quickest two laps in the morning session, his best time putting him 0.119 seconds ahead of US Racing’s Jack Beeton, while Prema’s Freddie Slater headed the slower afternoon session, with a time 0.145s down on Yamakoshi’s benchmark.

Beeton’s team-mates Akshay Bohra and Kabir Anurag had topped the times early on in FP1 before Beeton moved to the front with the first sub-2m06s lap with just under 30 minutes remaining.

Yamakoshi then went top, but Beeton immediately reclaimed the position. However, the Japanese driver continued to improve, moving back ahead as everybody pitted then improving further on his 11th and 12th laps.

Slater rose to third on his final flying lap, demoting Bohra to fourth at the flag, with VAR’s Gustav Jonsson taking fifth, having run as high as third during the session.

Yamakoshi was again to the fore in FP2, setting a 2m06.709s to head Slater by just 0.014s as the field headed to the pits with 15 minutes remaining.

Once back on track, Bohra and Gianmarco Pradel took turns at the front, before the Prema trio of Slater, Dion Gowda and Alex Powell each moved to the top within seconds of each other.

However, Slater was not to be beaten, returning to the top with a 2m05.343s on his final lap, with Rashid Al Dhaheri pipping Powell for second in the final seconds.

Bohra was sixth fastest overall with his FP1 time, ahead of Jonsson and Pradel, and Gowda’s FP2 improvement brought him into the top 10.

Andrej Petrovic is absent from the event having left PHM Racing during the week.

Free practice results