Yamakoshi tops Barcelona test as Italian F4 teams prepare to race in Spain

Photo: Van Amersfoort Racing

Prema and Van Amersfoort Racing tested at Barcelona this week with their Italian Formula 4 line-ups ahead of the championship’s first ever visit to the Spanish track this season.

Hiyu Yamakoshi led a VAR 1-2-3-4 in the opening session on Tuesday with a 1m41.311s lap. He was fastest by 0.181 seconds over Gustav Jonsson, with Alvise Rodella 0.247s behind in third and Lin Hodenius only 0.003s slower than that.

Hodenius is the latest addition to VAR’s line-up, and will do the full Italian F4 and Euro 4 seasons. Last year he came 27th in Spanish F4 with Monlau Motorsport, and made a Euro 4 outing with VAR. The 17-year-old’s first F4 points came in a Formula Winter Series cameo with Monlau a month ago.

Alex Powell was Prema’s top driver by 0.005s over Freddie Slater and was, 0.49s off the pace. Dion Gowda was the only other driver within a second of Yamakoshi.

Slater lowered the pace to 1m40.999s in session two, going fastest by 0.13s over Gowda and 0.154s over Kean Nakamura Berta as Prema’s drivers locked out the top six spots (with 0.485s covering the sextet) and all improved their pace.

Yamakoshi responded by setting a new 1m40.871s benchmark in session three, leading Rodella by 0.274s. This time VAR’s quintet locked out the top five places, although the top two were the only ones to improve.

It was Yamakoshi on top again in session four, but he lapped slower with a 1m40.949s. Slater was his closest rival, 0.124s behind, with Gowda 0.23s and Powell 0.262s off Yamakoshi’s pace. Powell set a new personal best lap, and 0.848s covered the 11-strong entry list.

Yamakoshi began Wednesday with a big pace gain, improving to 1m40.198s and going fastest by a huge 0.442s over Slater. Jonsson was 0.458s back in third, and 0.01s ahead of Powell, and first to last was covered by 0.968s as all improved.

Session six was also topped by Yamakoshi, this time with a 1m40.707s lap. He had a gap of 0.322s to Powell, 0.357s to Slater, 0.412s to Gowda and 0.432s to Jonsson.

The pace was considerably slower in session seven, topped by Gowda after he set a 1m42.279s. He was fastest by 0.138s over Slater, who was 0.01s ahead of Powell.

Yamakoshi returned to first place in the final session with a 1m40.505s lap. Rodella was second fastest, 0.467s behind with a personal best lap, and Jonsson was 0.584s back in third. Prema was absent from the session with all six of its drivers.

Test results