Several “sons of” in Italian F4 at Paul-Ricard

The first meeting of the International GT Open season on the Circuit Paul Ricard also welcomes residents of the Italian F1 championship, in which a few family names bring back memories...

At the end of the tests held yesterday on the '5.8' version of the Var track, it was Tim Tramnitz who dominated the impressive pack of 37 young guns entered in the category! The German driver was ahead of the Russian Nikita Bedrin, best Rookie of the day at the same time, and the Englishman Oliver Bearman. On the French side, Victor Bernier was already distinguishing himself by being systematically placed in the Top 10 of the two Friday sessions.

This morning, the 2 qualifying sessions took place which determine the starting grids for the 3 races to come this weekend. In Q1, it was Kiril Small, the Russian driver from the Prema squadron, who set the best time as well as pole position for the first race, which will start at 14:00 p.m. today. Tim Tramnitz, already well underway in his weekend, takes 2nd position and is ahead of Oliver Bearman. 4th, Conrad Laursen, teammate of Small, signs the best mark of the Rookies and will therefore start at the head of the category. You have to look in 9th position to find any trace of our French drivers, with Victor Bernier as standard bearer just behind a certain… Sebastien Montoya. He is ahead of the other Frenchies Sami Meguetounifi (14th) and Marcus Amand (27th). Lorenzo Patrese, another son of former motorsport glory, took 11th place in this Q1.

Poleman at the end of Q1, Kiril Small could not do better than 5th place in Q2 while improving his first reference by half a second! It was ultimately Oliver Bearman who set the best time in this second session and who will start in pole position for the 2nd race in the category, this Sunday from 10:50 a.m. TIm Tramnitz has also improved and will complete the 1st row tomorrow morning, while Luke Browning is ahead of Sebastian Montoya on the 2nd row. Nikita Bedrin, 7th, ranks 1st Rookie of this Q2 ahead of Conrad Laursen and Lorenzo Patrese. Victor Bernier, still the fastest of the French drivers entered in this session, must be content with 10th position while his compatriots will start respectively from 16th place for Sami Meguetounifi and 31st for Marcus Amand.