The Italian F.4 Championship at Spa-Francorchamps, the third round of the Championship, has Prema Racing signature on the first race day. This morning the amazing work in qualifying gave the Italian team the most advanced positions, then in race 1 came the performance was crowned on podium. Victory to Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the third one in the Italian F.4, followed on the podium by Rafael Camara, the Championship leader who took P2 after briefly leading the race in the early stages. Third is James Wharton, author of a good battle for P1 at Les Combes with Antonelli at the start of the race, which helped Camara, making the two slip back. The duo was then able to regain positions on a track that certainly favours the show, leaving room for fast overtaking. An all Prema podium, then, with 3 Rookie drivers, two of which being Ferrari Driver Academy (Camara and Wharton) and one Junior Mercedes (Antonelli).
P4 for Charlie Wurz, who thus completes the Prema Racing poker, which will certainly be able to celebrate success in full on the first day of the race, while waiting for the other two races tomorrow, which will see the drivers from the Vicenza-based team still starting from the front rows. In P5 Marcus Amand, of the German team US Racing, author of a stupendous race, had gained third place in the first laps, slipping in between his rivals, but lost positions by cutting through Les Combes turn bend, rejoining the race in P5, where he was engaged in a long fight with Nikita Bedrin (PHM Racing) first, and in attacks on Charlie Wurz later. Precious points went to the Franco-Finnish driver, and to the team of Ralf Schumacher and Gerhard Ungar. Bedrin himself finished P6, followed by teammate Taylor Barnard, in an excellent performance for Paul Müller's team. There was also a good result for US Racing's Irishman Alexander Dunne, who after some initial difficulties climbed up positions and finished P8. Tough battle to climb back up, which he ends by battling with Barnard, where he fails to gain position. He touches the kerb, approaching the Englishman to try and overtake, but his car rears up, with no consequences and no loss of position. He received then a 5'' penalty after the race breaching the regulation in his battle with Conrad Laursen, and slips tenth. In eighth position passes then the fifth of the drivers fielded by Prema Racing, the Dane Laursen, distant from his teammates, but still into the points. Ninth is Nikhil Bohra, US Racing. Closing just out of the top 10 from the first race of Spa-Francorchamps there is Brando Badoer (Van Amersfoort Racing) author of a solid and consistent performance.
Ivan Domingues (Iron Lynx) is in P12 followed by the Iron Dames team driver supported by Ferrari Driver Academy, Maya Weug. P14 for Jonas Ried, PHM Racing, followed by young Emerson Fittipaldi Jr, Van Amersfoort Racing.
A good first try for Valerio Rinicella, AKM Motorsport's freshly announced new driver, at his first experience in the Italian F.4 Championship he managed to stay in the middle of the standings in an extremely competitive series in terms of both quantity and quality of the competitors.
Problems for the other Italian driver in the series - the most internationally attended in the world, with 23 nations on the track out of 36 drivers present at Spa-Francorchamps - the Sicilian Alfio Spina, who did not line up on the grid due to a broken suspension. Retired are Martinus Stenshorne (Van Amersfoort Racing), who has to pit in after a few laps; Kim Hwarang (BVM Racing); Frederik Lund (R-ace GP) and Kacper Sztuka (US Racing).
Now starts the wait for race 2 on Sunday 19 at 9.40, while the last race of the weekend will get underway later in the evening, with the drivers ready to start from the grid at 17.25. Another pole position to be capitalized for Kimi Antonelli, winner of race 1, while in race 3 it will be Camara who will start from P1.
The race sessions will be broadcast live on ACI Sport TV and in live streaming on the Facebook and Youtube channels of the Italian F.4 Championship.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli: “the start was difficulty, the tow here is really strong. After the long straight I lost a lot of positions after an aggressive move by teammate. That’s racing, it was fine. At the end the pace was really good, I managed to take back the lead and then win the race. I’m really happy for it, we’ll see what we can do tomorrow!”
Rafael Camara: “the start was quite good. They did a mistake, Kimi and James, I just passed them both. Then after I didn’t have the pace to continue first. Kimi passed me quite easily, I couldn’t do nothing, I tried to defend on James and do some points for the Championship. We missed something in the speed, we will try to come back stronger tomorrow and get the win.”
James Wharton: “I tried at the start. I had my opportunity, I knew I would only get one to fight with Kimi, so I tried, didn’t quite work. I got it back in the end of the race, I couldn’t quite get passed Rafa. Overall a good team results, more points again.”
