The Autodromo Nazionale Monza is gearing up to host the final round of the Euro 4 Championship, with a day dedicated to collective tests. Under relentless rain, 29 drivers took to the wet track of the iconic Temple of Speed, familiarizing themselves with the challenges ahead.
At the end of the scheduled 4 hours, the fastest lap in wet conditions went to Van Amersfoort Racing's driver, Hiyu Yamakoshi. The Japanese driver set the quickest lap in the final stages of the session, stopping the clock at 2’08.061. Close behind him, in second place, was Mercedes Junior driver for Prema Racing, Alex Powell, trailing by just 0.012 seconds. In third place was Emanuele Olivieri, the Italian driver from AKM Motorsport. The representative of the San Marino-based team, headed by Marco and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, was in the lead for most of the session but ended with a very narrow gap of 0.035 seconds.
The fourth fastest lap was set by Prema Racing's Alpine Academy driver, the Japanese Kean Nakamura-Berta, who finished 0.053 behind. Reno Francot, the Dutch driver from Jenzer Motorsport, completed the session in fifth place, 0.071 behind. The sixth and last driver to remain within one-tenth of a second was Maksimilian Popov from PHM AIX Racing, finishing 0.093 behind Yamakoshi after the 4-hour session. Right behind him was Freddie Slater, the driver who brought glory to Prema Racing by becoming the Italian F4 Champion last weekend. Slater finished the collective tests with a gap of 0.254 seconds.
The eighth fastest time of the day went to Finnish driver Luka Sammalisto from R-ace GP. Sammalisto stopped the clock 0.348 seconds behind the Japanese driver. In ninth place was American driver Everett Stack from PHM AIX Racing, with a gap of 0.
396. Tenth place went to Prema Racing's Indian driver, Dion Gowda, trailing by 0.419 seconds. In eleventh place was Taipei's Enzo Yeh, representing R-ace GP, finishing 0.542 behind the session leader. Twelfth place went to Prema Racing's lightning-fast Latvian driver Tomas Stolcermanis, with a gap of 0.557, ahead of Akshay Bohra. Bohra, the New York-born driver with Indian origins, representing the German US Racing team, ended the session 0.569 seconds behind. Fourteenth place was taken by his teammate, German driver Maxim Rehm, with a gap of 0.585 from Yamakoshi. The top 15 was rounded out by Swiss driver Ethan Ischer from Jenzer Motorsport, with his fastest lap 0.632 seconds behind.
A very positive debut for ART Grand Prix on the first day, with driver Bianca Bustamante finishing in sixteenth place after holding the fastest lap in the early stages of the session. Her gap was 0.642. Her Brazilian teammate Aurelia Corine Nobels finished in eighteenth place, with a gap of 0.722. Between the two ART drivers was British-Spanish driver Edward Robinson from US Racing in seventeenth place, 0.700 seconds behind the Japanese leader. Australian driver Jack Beeton from US Racing finished nineteenth, with a gap of 0.789 seconds, ahead of Italian driver Davide Larini from PHM AIX Racing, who was twentieth with a gap of 0.879. Next up was Gianmarco Pradel from US Racing, who finished 21st, 0.977 seconds behind Yamakoshi, ahead of Romanian driver Luca Viisoreanu from Real Racing, who also remained within one second with a gap of 0.999. The gaps increased with Enea Frey from Jenzer Motorsport at 1.278, followed by Van Amersfoort Racing's Swedish driver Gustav Jonsson at 1.287, his American teammate Hudson Schwartz at 2.166, US Racing's Singaporean driver Kabir Anurag at 2.325, and Italian Mattia Marchiante from AKM Motorsport, who finished with a gap of 2.507. The last drivers to participate in the test were Van Amersfoort Racing's Lin Hodenius, 28th with a gap of 2.570, and Serbian driver Andrija Kostic, 29th with a gap of 3.712.
Thus ended the prelude to the ACI Racing Weekend at Monza, heavily marked by the constant rain throughout the 4-hour session, with cars returning to the pits for team adjustments. Tomorrow, Friday, October 4, there will be two more free practice sessions, this time lasting 40 minutes, starting at 9:40 and 13:20. Qualifying will kick off on Saturday, October 5, with two 15-minute sessions starting at 8:30 and 8:55. Also on Saturday, the first of the weekend's three races will take place, set to start at 14:50. On Sunday, October 6, the remaining two Euro 4 Championship races will be held, with Race 2 at 8:40 and Race 3 at 15:40.
The three races over the weekend will be run for 30 minutes plus one lap and will be broadcast live on the Euro 4 Championship's YouTube and Facebook channels, as well as on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228, Tivů Sat channel 52, and streaming on www.acisport.it). Additionally, coverage will be extended to a wide international network of TV channels, including the DAZN platform, ensuring global visibility for a championship that continues to grow in public interest within the world of feeder series.