Slater dominates wet conditions in the first free practice at Monza

The final round of the Italian F.4 Championship is underway, with one more free practice session remaining before this evening’s qualifying sessions

Image

The season’s finale has officially kicked off at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, where the young drivers of the Tatuus single-seaters, equipped with Pirelli tires, took to the track for the first free practice session of the day at 8:30. The cars battled through a wet track, setting the stage for what promises to be a rain-affected weekend. By the end of the session, it was Freddie Slater, the British Prema Racing driver and newly crowned Italian Champion, who emerged fastest. His best lap time was 2’03.657.

Close behind, just 0.396 seconds off, was Sweden’s Gustav Jonsson of Van Amersfoort Racing, securing the second-fastest lap. Alpine Academy's Kean Nakamura-Berta, representing both Japan and the UK with Prema Racing, clocked the third-best lap with a gap of 0.837 seconds. Australian Gianmarco Pradel of US Racing claimed fourth place, the last driver to keep the gap to Slater under a second, with a time 0.859 seconds behind the leader. 

In fifth, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Japanese driver Hiyu Yamakoshi posted a time 1.160 seconds off Slater’s. Dutchman Reno Francot, representing Jenzer Motorsport, secured the sixth fastest time with a 1.330-second gap. Akshay Bohra of US Racing, who last month clinched the Euro 4 Championship title on this very track, closed the session 1.449 behind Slater, taking seventh place.

US Racing continued to dominate the top ten, with Kabir Anurag, an Alpine Academy driver from Singapore, taking eighth with a time gap of 1.488, followed by Australian teammate Jack Beeton in ninth at 1.636. Rounding out the top ten was Van Amersfoort Racing’s Dutch driver, Lin Hodenius, 1.721 seconds off the leader.

Newcomers to the series used this session to get familiar with the track, including Van Amersfoort Racing’s Dante Vinci, Jenzer Motorsport’s Ciro Sobral, and Lia Block, an American driver for ART Grand Prix and a member of the Williams Driver Academy in F1 Academy. We’ll have to wait for the second session today (12:35-13:15) to see Kirill Kutskov of Maffi Racing and Bart Harrison of Jenzer Motorsport hit the track for their first laps.

Another 40-minute free practice session  today, Friday, October 25th, starting at 12:35. Qualifying will take place in the late afternoon, with the first session from 16:40 to 16:55, and the second from 17:05 to 17:20. The starting grid for Race 1 will be determined by the times from the first qualifying session, while the grid for Race 2 will be defined by the second session. The grid for the third race, the final of the season, will be based on the second-best time set by the drivers in the two qualifying sessions. 

Race 1 will take place on Saturday, October 26th, at 9:25, followed by Race 2 at 14:20. The grand finale, Race 3, is scheduled for Sunday, October 27th, at 10:25.

All three races, each lasting 30 minutes plus one lap, will be broadcast live on the YouTube and Facebook channels of the Italian F.4 Championship, on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228, Tivùsat channel 52, and streaming on www.acisport.it), as well as on DAZN and other platforms of the championship's wide international network.