Keith Camilleri finished the qualifying session for the first FIA F4 Italian Championship in 17th place, with team mate Zack Dante in 22nd place. Camilleri is this weekend making his debut in this newly formed FIA series, racing for the also new Malta Formula Racing team at the Adria International Raceway.
In the morning free practice session, an issue with the car prevented Keith from doing much running, while the car set-up changes that Camilleri and the team tried out were not found to have had the desired effect.
Things started improving in FP2 with the team being cautiously optimistic about the subsequent set-up tweaks that were carried out. Camilleri and the team also managed to get a better understanding of the behaviour of the Pirelli rubber, particularly in view of tomorrow's three 3 races.
With qualifying on fresh tyres Camilleri managed to put in a lap of 1'16:974 to finish 17th overall, improving on his times from practice and breaking the 1'17 barrier.
“I'm happy that I improved my time by 4 tenths, and we are getting there little by little. Considering I'm still a relative beginner and I'm gaining experience with every lap, I'm quite satisfied with today's performance”, said Camilleri just after qualifying.
Similarly, Zack said he was happy that he managed to improve a second off his time throughout the day to 1'17.947, and given his lack of experience in open wheeled cars, he also declared himself extremely satisfied.
Highlights from tomorrow's Race 1 and Race 2 will be shown on TVM2 followed by the climax of the event, Race 3, being broadcast live. Transmission starts at 4:30pm.