The opening day of the second round of the E4 Championship came to an end at Circuit Paul Ricard, with the 38 drivers taking part in two Free Practice sessions. It was a compact but busy day of track action, beginning with Ary Bansal (US Racing) topping the morning session in 2’08.206 before Kenzo Craigie (R-ace GP) posted the fastest lap of the day in the afternoon with a 2’06.899.
The Mercedes Junior Team driver was the only competitor to break the 2:07 barrier, immediately establishing himself as one of the drivers to watch in the battle at the front.
In the second session, Prema Racing's Turkish driver Alp Aksoy recorded the second-fastest time, finishing 0.267 seconds behind the leader. Third place went to Italian driver Iacopo Martinese, representing PHM Racing and ACI Team Italia. Martinese ended the session 0.274 seconds adrift after leading the timesheets in the closing stages before Craigie's decisive late improvement.
Fourth place went to Prema Racing's Williams Driver Academy driver Oleksandr Bondarev, once again delivering a strong performance.
Current championship leader Luka Sammalisto (US Racing) completed the day in fifth position, 0.401 seconds off the pace.
Behind him were two of his US Racing teammates: Noah Killion in sixth, 0.412 seconds behind, and Sicilian driver Ludovico Busso in seventh at 0.444. Eighth was Rome-born Ferrari Driver Academy representative Niccolò Maccagnani of Prema Racing, 0.496 seconds adrift.
R-ace GP's Mercedes Junior Team driver Andy Consani finished ninth with a gap of 0.525 seconds, while morning pacesetter Ary Bansal rounded out the top ten in the afternoon session, 0.578 seconds behind Craigie's benchmark.
Also noteworthy was the E4 Championship debut of Ella Hakkinen (Jenzer Motorsport), daughter of two-time Formula 1 World Champion Mika Hakkinen. The Finnish driver finished both sessions in the midfield and set her personal best time during Free Practice 2. Throughout the weekend she will battle Italy's Ginevra Panzeri (PA Racing) for top honours in the Women's Trophy classification.
Qualifying will take place on Saturday, 18 July. The first session is scheduled from 10:45 to 11:00, followed by the second from 11:10 to 11:25. Under the E4 Championship format, the first session will determine the grid for Race 1, while the second session will set the grid for Race 2. The Race 3 grid will be formed using each driver's second-best lap across the two qualifying sessions.
The opening race of the weekend will get underway on Saturday afternoon at 16:35. All three races will be contested over a distance of 30 minutes plus one lap.
Race 2 and Race 3 will take place on Sunday, 19 July, at 11:00 and 17:25 respectively, completing a weekend that could already prove decisive in the fight for the 2026 title.
All races throughout the weekend will be broadcast live on ACI Sport TV, streamed on the championship's official social media channels, and carried by the international network of broadcasters bringing the E4 Championship and Italian F4 to fans around the world.