The second round of the E4 Championship got underway at Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, with the opening Free Practice session providing the drivers' first opportunity to tackle the French venue. Topping the timesheets was US Racing's Ary Bansal, who posted a best lap of 2’08.206.
Second fastest was R-ace GP's Mercedes Junior Team driver Andy Consani, 0.349 seconds adrift, while Spanish-British US Racing driver Edward Robinson completed the top three with a gap of 0.475 seconds.
Fourth place went to Prema Racing's Ferrari Driver Academy representative Niccolò Maccagnani, just 0.479 seconds off the pace. Behind him was another Mercedes-backed driver, R-ace GP's Kenzo Craigie, who finished 0.596 seconds behind the session leader.
Sixth fastest was Trident Motorsport's Brazilian driver Augustus Toniolo at 0.624, followed by championship leader Luka Sammalisto of US Racing, seventh and 0.628 seconds adrift.
Prema Racing's Williams Driver Academy driver Oleksandr Bondarev set the eighth-fastest time, 0.644 seconds off the top spot. Behind the Ukrainian came US Racing's Ludovico Busso at 0.647, while another US Racing driver, Oleksandr Savinkov, completed the top ten with a gap of 0.673 seconds.
Track action will continue later today with a second Free Practice session scheduled for 13:08.
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.