In less than 48 hours – from Friday the 20th to Sunday the 22nd of October – the Brianza circuit will host the seventh and final round of the season. The fastest driver was Job Van Uitert
Monza hosted the third and final official test of the 2017 Italian F4 Championship powered by Abarth season. It is here, from Friday the 20th through to Sunday the 22nd of October, that the closing round of the series will take place which will award the titles of both champion driver and team. In the eight hours available – from 9:00am to 13:00 and from 14:00 through to 18:00 – there was two rivals for the title: the leader, the New Zealander Marcus Armstrong (Prema Power Team), who was fastest in the morning and the Dutch driver Job Van Uitert (Jenzer Motorsport) the fastest in the afternoon session and indeed the fastest overall with a time of 1’53”151. As in previous official sessions, the drivers spared nothing with some completing more than 100 laps, a testament to the reliability of the single-seater cars powered by Abarth and using Magigas fuel and Pirelli tyres.
- Behind Van Uitert was his teammate, the Indian Kush Maini (1’53”219), Armstrong (1’53”235, time recorded in the morning), and the driver who took pole position here at Monza last year, the Venezuelan Sebastian Fernandez (Bhaitech), with 1’53”365. Just 47 thousandths of a second behind Fernandez, in fifth, was his team mate, Italian Lorenzo Colombo. From sixth through to tenth position was the Argentine Giorgio Carrara (Jenzer Motorsport), Italian Leonardo Lorandi (Bhaitech), the Russian Artem Petrov (DR Formula), Swiss driver Giacomo Bianchi (Jenzer Motorsport) and, just thousandths of a second behind, the Italian, Federico Malvestiti.
- Analysing the “ideal lap” showed that Van Uitert had found a liking to the Monza circuit, as his ideal best time (obtained by combining his best sectors) was 1:52:839. Also his main rival Armstrong has found a good margin of improvement, even if slightly behind, with an ideal lap of 1:53:125. Of all the drivers on track, only Federico Malvestiti obtained a time identical to his ideal lap: 1:53:983, recorded in the second session.
- Monza again confirmed itself as the “cathedral of speed”: 243,8 km/h achieved by the Swiss driver Giacomo Bianchi in the first session the fastest all season.
- The next appointment is on Friday the 20th of October with the first sessions of free practice and qualifying for the seventh round of the season for the Italian F4 Championship powered by Abarth.