Slater cruises to maiden Italian F4 win in Misano race one

Photo: ACI Sport

Freddie Slater led lights-to-flag in the opening race of the Italian Formula 4 season at Misano.

Poleman Slater had been slow away on the formation lap but executed the race start to perfection to lead his Prema team-mate Alex Powell into the first corner, with the US Racing pair of Gianmarco Pradel and Akshay Bohra slotting in behind.

Thereafter Slater was able to maintain the gap to Mercedes-AMG junior Powell at around one second to take a comfortable win.

The safety car made a brief appearance after three laps following an incident in the midfield which eliminated Cram Motorsport’s Kai Daryanani while Maffi Racing’s Nathanael Berreby spun into retirement in a separate incident.

In a relatively uneventful race the four leaders maintained position throughout, with the Prema duo gradually pulling away at the front.

The third US Racing car of Jack Beeton managed to get past Van Amerfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi after the race restart to take fifth, with Enzo Yeh unchallenged in seventh.

The most significant battle of the race was behind them as the Prema quartet of Kean Nakamura Berta, Tomass Stolcermanis, Rashid Al Dhaheri and Dion Gowda, fought for seventh.

Stolcermanis pulled off a superb pass around the outside at turn one at the restart to demote PHM Racing’s Davide Larini, who immediately dropped back behind the Prema phalanx.

Alpine junior Nakamura Berta was the man on the move, picking off Al Dhaheri in the early stages before closing on Stolcermanis who he passed on lap nine. However, he was unable to make any inroads on the R-ace GP car of Yeh ahead.

Race result (19 laps)