The qualifying sessions for the second round of the Euro 4 Championship took place at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. On this Saturday, September 14, unlike yesterday, the drivers found a dry track, with the temperature attested at 10.5°C, while the air temperature was 8.7°C.
The qualifying was held in two 15-minute sessions, which determined the grids for Race 1 and Race 2, while the grid for Race 3 was decided by the second-best lap time achieved across the two sessions. At the end, it was two Prema Racing drivers who secured the front rows for the weekend's races: British driver Freddie Slater will start from P1 in Race 1 and Race 3, while Latvian driver Tomass Stolcermanis, with only a 27-millisecond advantage over the driver in car #27, will take pole for Race 2.
The first qualifying session quickly heated up. Maxim Rehm of US Racing was one of the first to set a fast lap, stopping the clock just a few tenths over 1’33’’. Freddie Slater and Tomass Stolcermanis then lowered the lap time into the 1’32’’ range. Kean Nakamura Berta, the Alpine Academy driver for Prema Racing, then took P1, followed by Mercedes junior teammate Alex Powell. In the final stages, the fastest lap was temporarily held by Edward Robinson (US Racing) and Hiyu Yamakoshi (Van Amersfoort Racing).
In a session that saw numerous changes at the top, it was finally Freddie Slater who claimed the first pole position with a time of 1’32.116. Second place went to Rehm, with a gap of 0.284, followed by Stolcermanis at 0.295. P4 went to US Racing's Australian driver Gianmarco Pradel, with a gap of 0.340, followed by his English-Spanish teammate Edward Robinson at 0.353. Japanese driver Yamakoshi finished sixth, 0.381 behind, followed just 2 milliseconds later (0.
383) by Maksimilian Popov of PHM AIX Racing. Finnish driver Luka Sammalisto of R-ace GP secured seventh with a gap of 0.446, followed by Nakamura-Berta, 0.461 behind the leader. Closing out the top 10 were Prema Racing's Emirati driver Rashid Al Dhaheri, 0.511 behind, and Jamaican-American driver Alex Powell, with a gap of 0.578.
After a 10-minute break in the pit lane, the Euro 4 Championship's Tatuus cars returned to the track for the second qualifying session. Robinson was among the first to lower the lap times, stopping the clock just over 3 tenths of a second above 1’32’’. Then it was Slater’s turn again, dropping the time to 1’31. The provisional pole was briefly held by Yamakoshi, but Slater reclaimed it by shaving off further tenths, recording a 1’31.713 lap.
Slater’s time seemed poised to hold until the end when an impressive lap from Stolcermanis in the final moments snatched the pole with a time of 1’31.686. Slater will have to settle for a start from second place, with a 0.027-second gap, followed by Jonsson, 0.141 behind. Yamakoshi will start from P4, with a margin of 0.166 from the fastest lap, followed by Rehm, 0.214 seconds back. Al Dhaheri, starting from P6 with a gap of 0.290, will be followed in Race 2 by Pradel, whose gap was 0.349 seconds. US Racing’s talented Australian driver Jack Beeton finished eighth in the second qualifying session, with a gap of 0.364. Robinson secured ninth place with a 0.419 gap, while the top 10 was rounded out by Italian driver Davide Larini. The Tuscan driver from PHM AIX Racing finished the session with a gap of 0.455.
With a second-best lap time of 1’31.761 in the second session, Freddie Slater secured the pole position for Race 3 as well. Starting alongside him on the front row for the final race of the second round of the Euro 4 Championship will be Gustav Jonsson. Tomass Stolcermanis will start from third, followed by Hiyu Yamakoshi and Gianmarco Pradel. Rashid Al Dhaheri will start from the sixth row of the grid, followed by Maxim Rehm and Jack Beeton. The fifth row will consist of Alex Powell and Edward Robinson.
Now there’s a very short wait for the first race of the weekend, set to start today, Saturday, September 14, at 12:15, lasting 30 minutes plus one lap. On Sunday, September 15, Race 2 (30 minutes + 1 lap) will start at 10:10, followed by Race 3 (30 minutes + 1 lap) at 16:05.
All the action will be broadcast live on the Euro 4 Championship YouTube and Facebook channels, as well as on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228, Tivů Sat channel 52, and streaming on www.acisport.it). Additionally, coverage will be extended to a wide network of international broadcasters, including the DAZN platform, ensuring global visibility for a championship that is becoming increasingly important in the feeder series landscape.