The day of free practice for the fifth round of the Italian F.4 Championship has concluded at Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France. On Friday, July 19th, two sessions were held to kick off the weekend. The first session took place this morning at 8:30, followed by the second at 13:13, with temperatures rising. The air temperature reached 31.9°C, while the track temperature climbed to 48.8°C. 

At the end of Free Practice 2, the drivers from the Vicenza-based Prema Racing team dominated the session. The fastest lap was recorded by Championship leader Freddie Slater, with a time of 2’05.343. He was closely followed by his teammate Rashid Al Dhaheri from the Emirates, with a gap of only 0.055 seconds. The Jamaican-American junior Mercedes driver, Alex Powell, also maintained a minimal gap, setting a time just 0.057 seconds behind the leader. Margins were extremely tight for the Prema trio leading the session. 

Fourth was the Australian Jack Beeton from US Racing, with a gap of 0.304 seconds. In fifth position was Hiyu Yamakoshi from Van Amersfoort Racing, with a gap of 0.352 seconds in the second session. However, the Japanese driver recorded the fastest lap of the day during the morning session with a time of 2’05.198. Sixth in Free Practice 2 was the Indian driver Akshay Bohra from US Racing, with a gap of 0.399 seconds from Freddie Slater. Dion Gowda, Indian driver from Prema Racing, finished the second session in seventh place, with a margin of 0.432 seconds from the leader. Eighth was Kean Nakamura-Berta, a Japanese driver from the Alpine Academy representing Prema Racing, who followed his teammate closely with a gap of 0.494 seconds. Completing the top 10 were the US Racing drivers: Australian Gianmarco Pradel with a gap of 0.543 seconds and Brazilian Matheus Ferreira, who was 0.569 seconds behind the leader.

With the second session of the day, all opportunities for finalizing the setup for the French weekend, the first European event of the Italian F.4 Championship, fifth round of the Italian single-seater Championship promoted by ACI Sport and WSK Promotion, have officially ended. The next time the drivers will tackle the Paul Ricard track will be for the qualifying sessions, which will determine the starting grid for the three races over the weekend.

The Schedule 

The action continues tomorrow, Saturday, July 20th, with the crucial qualifying sessions. The first session will take place from 10:45 to 11:00, followed by the second session from 11:10 to 11:25. Race 1 is scheduled for Saturday evening at 16:35 for 30 minutes plus one lap. Race 2 and Race 3, both 30 minutes plus one lap, will be held on Sunday, July 21st, at 11:10 and 17:25, respectively.

The three races of the weekend will be broadcast live on the Italian F.4 Championship's YouTube and Facebook channels, on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228, Tivù Sat channel 52, and streaming on www.acisport.it), as well as on the extensive network of international television channels broadcasting the Italian F4 Championship 2024, including the DAZN platform.