On a track still cool in the morning air (14°C ambient, 12°C track), his teammate Gabriel Gomez from Brazil followed just 0.006 seconds behind. The São Paulo-born driver currently stands as the last obstacle in Kean Nakamura-Berta’s quest for the Italian title. The Japanese-Slovak driver from Prema Racing used the first session to fine-tune his setup for the weekend rather than push for the top times, finishing fifteenth.
The gap to third place was once again minimal, with another US Racing driver on top: Kabir Anurag, a member of the Alpine Academy, who stopped the clock just 0.044 seconds from Sammalisto. Behind him came the first non-US Racing competitor, Sebastian Wheldon, the American-British Andretti Junior from Prema Racing, who closed the session 0.
099 seconds off the pace.
Maksimilian Popov of Van Amersfoort Racing, who had led the early stages of the session, finished fifth at 0.208 seconds. Next came Artem Severiukhin from Jenzer Motorsport, 0.241 seconds behind and the fastest among the Rookie class drivers. Andrija Kostic, the Serbian driver from US Racing, was seventh at 0.337, edging Oleksander Bondarev, the Williams Driver Academy talent from Prema Racing, by just 0.001 seconds.
Rounding out the top 10 were two Italian drivers: Emanuele Olivieri from Asti, driving for R-ace GP, set the ninth fastest lap at 0.370, followed by Ludovico Busso from Sicily, representing US Racing, at 0.412. Among the contenders for the Women’s Trophy, the fastest was Californian Payton Westcott of Van Amersfoort Racing, 22nd overall.
Today’s program, Friday, October 10, continues with the second free practice session from 10:35 to 11:15. Drivers will then be divided into two series for the qualifying sessions in the early afternoon (Series 1: 15:20–15:45; Series 2: 15:55–16:10). Based on qualifying results, competitors will be split into three groups (A, B, and C). On Saturday, the three group races will take place, followed by the Final and the Imola make-up race on Sunday.
Saturday, October 11 schedule:
Race 1 (Groups B and C): 9:00
Race 2 (Groups A and B): 13:20
Race 3 (Groups A and C): 17:00
Sunday, October 12:
Final race: 11:00
Imola make-up race: 16:00
All races will last 25 minutes plus one lap and will be broadcast live in Italian on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228 and live streaming at live.acisport.tv).
The English-language live stream will be available on the championship’s social media pages and through the international broadcasters of the Italian F.4 Championship network.