Nakamura-Berta boosts Italian F4 lead with Barcelona victory

Photo: ACI Sport

Kean Nakamura-Berta significantly boosted his Italian Formula 4 championship lead with victory in race one at Barcelona while rival Gabriel Gomez stalled and retired.

Gomez started the race in third, directly behind polesitter Nakamura-Berta, and despite initially moving forward when the lights went out, his car then stalled. The US Racing driver did get going deep inside the pack but was then hit in Turn 2 by Luca Viisoreanu, sustaining a left-rear puncture before pitting and retiring.

Nakamura-Berta retained the lead at the start in a Prema 1-2-3, with Sebastian Wheldon leaping from fifth to take second from Salim Hanna through the opening two turns.

Wheldon would not have the pace to stay with Nakamura-Berta – who pulled five seconds clear out front – and had to start defending from Hanna as the race entered its final 10 minutes.

When Wheldon went deep into Turn 1, Hanna took advantage to drive around his outside through Turn 3 and take second, and Emanuele Olivieri immediately did the same at the next corner to grab third and make his return to the podium for R-ace GP.

Newman Chi and Luka Sammalisto demoted Wheldon to sixth in the closing laps.

Dante Vinci finished on Wheldon’s tail in seventh ahead of Artem Severiukhin. Bader Al Sulaiti had been running eighth until being passed by Jenzer Motorsport team-mate Severiukhin and then locking up on the penultimate lap and being shuffled back to 14th at the flag.

Race results (19 laps)