Photo: ACI SportUS Racing’s Luka Sammalisto controlled the first race of the season finale at Mugello to take his 10th Italian Formula 4 victory of the season.
The Finn, who wrapped up the title at the penultimate round at Misano in September, led from start to finish, comfortably controlling the gap to the battling quartet behind him in a largely incident-free race.
Speaking to Formula Scout after the race, Sammalisto said: “The start was really good. Here you just need to manage the tyres which I managed really well. The car just felt amazing so thanks to the whole US Racing team. I hope that I can finish the year with another hat-trick.”
McLaren junior Christian Costoya held off Jenzer Motorsport’s Elia Weiss for second but never looked like closing the gap to Sammalisto out front. Weiss had almost failed to get away from his slot on the outside of the front row for the formation lap but managed to get going in time to retake his position next to polesitter Sammalisto.
But the German was slow away when the lights went out allowing Costoya to grabl second place on the run down to the first corner. Weiss put him under pressure in the opening laps, having a couple of looks into Turn 1 but was unable to regain his position.
They were followed home by Ludovico Busso for US Racing who was sliding luridly in the closing laps, allowing R-ace GP’s Andy Consani to attempt a pass. However, the Mercedes-AMG F1 junior fell just short, crossing the line tucked behind Busso’s gearbox.
Trident’s Augustus Toniolo charged through from the sixth row to claim sixth just two seconds adrift of Consani at the flag. He was followed home by Prema’s Alp Aksoy and US Racing’s Iacopo Martinese.
Another driver who had been making up places was Van Amersfoort Racing’s Thomas Bearman, who was up to ninth from 13th on the grid before a coming together with Bader Al Sulaiti forced both drivers to the pits. The Qatari retired while Bearman rejoined almost a lap down on the leaders.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luka Sammalisto | US Racing | 27m56.231s |
| 2 | Christian Costoya | Prema Racing | +2.931s |
| 3 | Elia Weiss | Jenzer Motorsport | +3.706s |
| 4 | Ludovico Busso | US Racing | +4.464s |
| 5 | Andy Consani | R-ACE GP | +4.592s |
| 6 | Augustus Toniolo | Trident Motorsport | +6.596s |
| 7 | Alp Aksoy | Prema Racing | +11.051s |
| 8 | Iacopo Martinese | US Racing | +11.431s |
| 9 | Nicolas Cortes | Jenzer Motorsport | +17.587s |
| 10 | Alex Ruta | Van Amersfoort Racing | +19.433s |
| 11 | Ary Bansal | US Racing | +22.030s |
| 12 | Pedro Lima | Van Amersfoort Racing | +22.242s |
| 13 | Noah Killion | US Racing | +25.590s |
| 14 | Alexander Chartier | PHM Racing | +25.797s |
| 15 | Payton Westcott | R-ACE GP | +26.405s |
| 16 | Jesse Phillips | R-ACE GP | +29.227s |
| 17 | Bernardo Bernoldi | Trident Motorsport | +30.030s |
| 18 | Emma Felbermayr | PHM Racing | +30.498s |
| 19 | Mathilda Paatz | Mathilda Racing | +30.748s |
| 20 | Filippo Sala | Prema Racing | +38.145s |
| 21 | Lucas Pasquinetti | Trident Motorsport | +38.704s |
| 22 | Vittorio Orsini | AKM Motorsport | +42.278s |
| 23 | Igor Polak | Maffi Racing | +43.573s |
| 24 | Andre Rodriguez | CRAM Motorsport | +45.354s |
| 25 | Joaquin Rubino | Alpha 54 Racing | +59.390s |
| 26 | Yibei Sun | Trident Motorsport | +1m02.166s |
| 27 | Oscar Repetto | PHM Racing | +1m02.590s |
| 28 | Fabricio Fogaca | AKM Motorsport | +1m24.534s |
| 29 | Thomas Bearman | Van Amersfoort Racing | +1m33.941s |
| 30 | Dominik Simek | Trident Motorsport | +1 lap |
| 31 | Bader Al Sulaiti | Jenzer Motorsport | +4 laps |
| Ret | Ginevra Panzeri | Prema Racing | Retired |