Home Formula 4Italian F4 Antonelli completes Mugello hat-trick to finish F4 season in style

Antonelli completes Mugello hat-trick to finish F4 season in style

by Roger Gascoigne

Photo: ACI Sport

Andrea Kimi Antonelli completed his third clean sweep of the Italian Formula 4 season with his third victory of the weekend, and 13th in total, in the season finale at Mugello.

The Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior had to manage two safety car restarts but never looked under any threat as he cruised home 2.5 seconds ahead of his Prema team-mates Ugo Ugochukwu and Charlie Wurz.

Polesitter Rafael Camara was eliminated in a first corner incident by US Racing’s Alex Dunne, ensuring that Dunne clinched the series runner-up position despite his resulting drive-through penalty.

Antonelli made a perfect start with Ugochukwu jumping up to second ahead of Camara.

Camara’s slow getaway allowed a fast-starting Dunne to make an optimistic lunge to the inside into San Donato. Contact pitched the Ferrari junior into a spin, leaving Dunne’s US team-mate Kacper Sztuka with nowhere to go and both finished their races in the gravel trap.

The safety car was called out immediately, leading the field until the end of the third lap. Antonelli made a perfect restart, but behind him Dunne got a run on Ugochukwu into the first corner, outbraking the American to move up to second.

Dunne was judged to be at fault for the first corner crash and was penalised, which he served at the end of lap five, rejoining in 37th and last place, before retiring soon after. However, with Camara out of the race, Dunne’s championship runner-up spot was secure.

Antonelli was untouchable out front, pulling out 3.4s over Ugochukwu in three laps after the restart.

An incident between Van Amersfoort Racing’s Jules Castro and Iron Lynx’s Nicola Lacorte on the exit of San Donato brought out the safety car for a second time.

The green flag waved at the end of lap 10 with four minutes remaining, the race having been shortened by two minutes as Maya Weug had initially lined up in the wrong grid spot, necessitating a second formation lap.

Antonelli once again judged the restart to perfection, and Wurz once again tussled with Ugochukwu, pulling alongside under braking but failing to find a way past around the outside of the American through San Donato.

Behind them, Prema team-mate James Wharton locked up as a he dived to the inside of Nikhil Bohra but emerged in fifth. Bohra was demoted further next time around by PHM Racing’s Taylor Barnard, putting in another storming drive through the field from 19th on the grid.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Martinius Stenshorne came home fourth, continuing his strong second half of the season, ahead of Wharton, Barnard and Bohra. The VAR pair of Brando Badoer and Arvid Lindblad and PHM’s Nikita Bedrin completed the top 10.

Race result (14 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Prema 31m14.114s
2 Ugo Ugochukwu Prema +2.478s
3 Charlie Wurz Prema +3.534s
4 Martinius Stenshorne VAR +5.802s
5 James Wharton Prema +6.120s
6 Taylor Barnard PHM Racing +6.561s
7 Nikhil Bohra US Racing +7.387s
8 Arvid Lindblad VAR +8.412s
9 Brando Badoer VAR +9.243s
10 Nikita Bedrin PHM Racing +9.355s
11 Marcus Amand US Racing +11.022s
12 Valentin Kluss Jenzer Motorsport +12.436s
13 Akshay Bohra US Racing +12.516s
14 Alfio Spina BVM Racing +12.517s
15 Maya Weug Iron Lynx +15.418s
16 Emmo Fittipaldi VAR +15.777s
17 Jesse Carrasquedo Jr Monlau Motorsport +16.010s
18 Pedro Perino US Racing +16.660s
19 William Karlsson BVM Racing +16.922s
20 Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi Jenzer Motorsport +18.012s
21 Jonas Ried PHM Racing +18.277s
22 Valerio Rinicella AKM Motorsport +18.557s
23 Viktoria Blokhina PHM Racing +19.696s
24 Ethan Ischer Jenzer Motorsport +19.761s
25 Giovanni Maschio R-ace GP +20.107s
26 Jef Machiels Monlau Motorsport +20.504s
27 Frederik Lund R-ace GP +24.161s
28 Niels Koolen Monlau Motorsport +24.498s
29 Ruiqi Liu AKM Motorsport +25.028s
30 Georgios Markogiannis Cram Motorsport +26.894s
31 Elia Sperandio Maffi Racing +30.495s
32 Ismail Akhmed AKM Motorsport +30.848s
33 Andrea Frassineti Cars Racing +31.027s
34 Alex Partyshev Jenzer Motorsport +1 lap
Ret Jules Castro VAR
Ret Niko Lacorte Iron Lynx
Ret Alex Dunne US Racing
Ret Ivan Domingues Iron Lynx
Ret Conrad Laursen Prema
Ret Kacper Sztuka US Racing
Ret Rafael Camara Prema
Fastest lap: Antonelli, 1m49.433s

Championship standings
1 Antonelli 362   2 Dunne 258   3 Camara 239   4 Wurz 198   5 Wharton 166   6 Sztuka 162   7 Stenshorne 122   8 Barnard 103   9 Amand 94   10 Ugochukwu 84