Aiden Neate lit up the timesheets with the fastest time across both free practice sessions ahead of the ROKiT F4 British Championship certified by FIA season-opener at Donington Park.
The Phinsys by Argenti racer clocked a best lap of 1:05.301 on his final run in FP2, with Carlin’s Ugo Ugochukwu and Hitech GP’s Alex Dunne similarly improving to go second and third, 0.07 and 0.16 seconds back respectively.
Erstwhile leader Oliver Gray’s morning benchmark of 1:05.541 remained enough to keep the Williams Racing junior in fourth overall, with Argenti’s own F1 junior, Mercedes’ Daniel Guinchard, rounding out the top five in both sessions, and outright.
Joseph Loake led the line for reigning champions JHR Developments in sixth spot, with he, Hitech’s Eduardo Coseteng, Virtuosi’s Edward Pearson and the final Carlin challenger of Louis Sharp covered by just two tenths in the final order.
Loake’s JHR team-mate Georgi Dimitrov rounded out the top ten, just 0.012s ahead of Michael Shin in the other Virtuosi.
Oliver Stewart (Hitech) led a trio of Rookie Cup-eligible entries next with Adam Fitzgerald (Argenti) and Noah Lisle (JHR) for close company. Chris Dittmann Racing’s Joel Pearson and Daniel Mavlyutov (Hitech) round out the 16-strong field.
Qualifying marks the start of competitive action in Britain’s FIA Formula 4 series for 2022 at 10:35 on Saturday (23 April), with the opening race to follow later that afternoon at 15:00.
Sunday features another double header of action at 09:45 and 15:20, with the latter race shown live and free-to-air in the UK on ITV4.
For full session results from Donington Park, click here.
