Thanks to his lap of 1:48.217s in the morning session, the Danish member of the Renault Sport Academy led from, Yifei Ye (Josef Kaufmann Racing), who put in the best time in the afternoon. The leader in the general classification Max Fewtrell (R-ace GP) and Italian Lorenzo Colombo (JD Motorsport) completed the quartet that dominated the day.
On Thursday, the field had a four-hour test session with Yifei Ye setting the benchmark time of 1:48.657 ahead of Logan Sargeant (R-ace GP) and Max Fewtrell.
Lundgaard strong in the morning
In the morning, Max Fewtrell quickly went to the top of the time sheet before Yifei Ye took over in the opening 15 minutes. The pace picked up in the final ten minutes under the leadership of Logan Sargeant and Lorenzo Colombo.
Christian Lundgaard finally got the upper hand with a time of 1:48.217s. Yifei Ye and Max Fewtrell followed the Dane by less than 0.7s. Lorenzo Colombo and Logan Sargeant completed the top five in session with the top 18 drivers covered by less than a second.
Ye leads, but doesn’t improve
Under sunny blue skies in the afternoon, Max Fewtrell and Yifei Ye traded the fastest times in the opening half of the session. On P1, Yifei Ye got the sprint final underway eight minutes from the chequered flag.
Lorenzo Colombo went quicker, but the Chinese driver immediately responded with two new fast laps. His time of 1:48.984s saw him finish ahead of Lorenzo Colombo, Max Fewtrell and Christian Lundgaard. Behind the day’s top four was Max Defourny (MP Motorsport) in fifth place.
Tomorrow, the field will contest the first qualifying session at 9am before the first race of the weekend at 2:05pm.
Quotes
Christian Lundgaard (MP Motorsport): “It was a rather positive day. Our previous test at Monza wasn’t as good as I had hoped, but it was one of my first times in a Formula Renault. Since then we have improved our pace and we are in a good position for tomorrow. The track conditions changed a lot between the two sessions, especially due to the tyres used by the other categories racing here, but we know which direction to go.”
Yifei Ye (Josef Kaufmann Racing): “My weekend at Castellet was good, but my car had a lot more potential. So, I cleared my head this week to fully concentrate on Monza. This morning I was in a good position and I didn’t have the slipstream on my lap with new tyres. This afternoon we were really competitive. Tomorrow’s qualifying will take place in the same “fresh” conditions we had this morning and we will then have to adapt to the changing track conditions. In any case, I am confident.”
Max Fewtrell (R-ace GP): “We are still looking for optimal balance, especially for the final sector. This is our weak point, but we will look at the data and everything should go well tomorrow. Overall, I am confident and happy with our pace. We were in the top three all day. I have to take the races one at a time… And there should be a lot more tyre degradation tomorrow than last year!”
Lorenzo Colombo (JD Motorsport): “I particularly like this circuit. After two years in Italian F4, I know it very well and it is my home track this year! Yesterday, we had four hours of testing. We made a lot of changes to improve. I was pleased with my time this morning, but I knew there were still a lot of things to refine. Here, the slipstream is essential. It will be a good idea to follow a few cars in qualifying to start higher on the grid this weekend than at Circuit Paul Ricard!”
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