At the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, host of the fifth round of the Italian F.4 Championship, free practice sessions have come to an end. Two 40-minute sessions were held today, crucial for finalizing the setup work on the Tatuus cars ahead of the race weekend.
In the morning session, it was Gabriel Gomez of US Racing who set the benchmark time with a 1’47.046. In the afternoon, the quickest lap of the day came from Oleksandr Bondarev. The Ukrainian rookie, representing Prema Racing and part of the Williams Driver Academy, clocked a 1’46.229. Just behind him was teammate Newman Chi, trailing by only 88 thousandths. Third place went to Kabir Anurag of US Racing, an Alpine Academy driver, 0.118 off the lead.
Fourth-fastest was Colombian driver Salim Hanna of Prema Racing with a gap of 0.
188. Gomez finished fifth in the afternoon session, 0.218 behind, followed by Andrea Charles Dupé, the Frenchman from Prema Racing, sixth at 0.227. Championship leader Kean Nakamura-Berta, also from Prema, was seventh, 0.244 off the pace.
Emanuele Olivieri once again delivered a strong performance, the best among the Italian drivers and those competing with R-ace GP: he posted the eighth-best time, 0.307 behind. Luka Sammalisto of US Racing was ninth at 0.320. Completing the top ten was Enea Frey of Jenzer Motorsport, 0.347 adrift.
The next key stage of the weekend is qualifying, scheduled for this evening, Friday, 1 August. The first session will run from 6:10PM to 6:25PM, followed by the second session from 6:35PM to 6:50PM. The results will determine the starting grids for Race 1 and Race 2, while the grid for Race 3 will be based on the second-fastest lap time set by each driver.
On Saturday, 2 August, Race 1 will start at 11:40AM (30 minutes + 1 lap), followed by Race 2 at 6:40PM (30 minutes + 1 lap). The weekend will conclude on Sunday, 3 August, with Race 3, scheduled to start at 12:00PM (30 minutes + 1 lap).
The first two races will be broadcast live on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228 and Tivůsat channel 52), while Race 3 will be shown on delay on Sunday evening. All races will also be available via live streaming on live.acisport.it and on the ACI Sport TV Facebook and YouTube channels. An English-language broadcast will be available through the international channels airing the Italian F.4 Championship and via the series’ official social media profiles.