Olli Caldwell wins first Italian F4 race at Paul Ricard, Fittipaldi and Lorandi collide

Olli Caldwell claimed his first Italian Formula 4 win in the opening race at Paul Ricard, as championship leaders Enzo Fittipaldi and Leonardo Lorandi collided on the opening lap.

Fittipaldi collected Lorandi at the first corner as he battled with his car after his rear wing was dislodged by contact with another driver. Both were sent into the run off area as the rest of the field passed, before making it to the pits to retire.

Caldwell managed to avoid the drama, starting third but jumping into the lead off the line.

Poleman Fedrick Vesti was forced to defend from Jack Doohan and Gianluca Petecof in the opening stages of the race, allowing Caldwell to build a gap to the rest of the field. Caldwell managed to extend the gap to almost six seconds, but Vesti began to catch him late in the race.

He ran out of time before he could considerably close the gap to Calwell, finishing 5.076s behind the Brit.

Caldwell moves up to third in the championship standings, 14 points behind Lorandi.

Petr Ptacek managed to find a way past Doohan and Petecof to move into the final podium position, but came under pressure from Toby Sowery in the closing stages of the race. The pair ran side by side for a number of corners before Sowery managed to take the insdie line at the final corner and moved into third. Ptacek remained close behind, but couldn?t take the position back.

Doohan and Petecof collided as they battled for what was fourth. Petecof tried to move up the inside of his team-mate at Turn 5 and hit Doohan. Both dropped down the order, with Doohan forced to retire in the pits a handful of laps later. Petecof continued, and was classified 13th after receiving a 10 second penalty for his part in the incident.

Ian Rodriguez spent the second half of the race with Federico Malvestiti and Javier Gonzalez on his tail. Malvestiti passed Rodriguez late in the race to take fifth, finishing four seconds ahead of the Guatemalan and five seconds ahead of Gonzalez.

Race one results (15 laps)