Home Formula 4Italian F4 Antonelli dominates at a drying Red Bull Ring to extend Italian F4 lead

Antonelli dominates at a drying Red Bull Ring to extend Italian F4 lead

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: ACI Sport

Kimi Andrea Antonelli dominated the second Italian Formula 4 race at the Red Bull Ring, finishing more than five seconds ahead of title rival Rafael Camara.

There was little challenge to Antonelli throughout the race. After starting behind the safety car due to wet conditions, the championship leader quickly pulled away from pole.

Camara was brought back onto Antonelli’s tail when the debuting Niko Lacorte and Zachary David came together at turn three, bringing an end to both drivers’ races. But when racing resumed with 14 minutes left on the clock, Antonelli once again ran away.

He didn’t put a wheel wrong, and took his ninth win of the season 5.675s ahead of the rest of the field.

Behind him, US Racing’s Alex Dunne had caught Camara in the final laps. Dunne had picked off team-mate Kacper Sztuka before the first safety car, but was drawn back into a battle with Prema’s James Wharton on the restart.

Wharton briefly took third but ran wide and Dunne was able to come back through. Sztuka and Charlie Wurz joined them to make it a four-way fight, but Dunne was eventually able to shake off the train of drivers as they battled among themselves.

Dunne closed the two-second gap to Camara at the end and challenged the Brazilian for second place. Camara defended hard and almost let the position slip away, but held on to extend his advantage to Dunne in the standings.

Sztuka and Wurtz managed to pass Wharton late on, with Wharton coming home sixth.

Maya Weug took seventh ahead of Iron Lynx team-mate Ivan Domingues and Conrad Laursen.

There were a number of incidents further back in the order, but none that would bring out he safety car. A wide moment for Brando Badoer dropped him backwards while fighting at the sharp end of the field, but he was able to climb back up to 10th by the chequered flag.

Adam Fitzgerald had a difficult race, making contact with Frederick Lund while they battled for position, then having a wide moment through the gravel on his own which dropped him even further back.

Just outside the top 10, Emmo Fittipaldi was running in a train of drivers battling for 12th when he came together with another driver on the final lap and was spun around. He took the chequered flag in 17th place.

Race result (15 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Prema 27m42.327s
2 Rafael Camara Prema +5.675s
3 Alex Dunne US Racing +5.852s
4 Kacper Sztuka US Racing +11.216s
5 Charlie Wurz Prema +13.117s
6 James Wharton Prema +15.904s
7 Maya Weug Iron Lynx +19.427s
8 Ivan Domingues Iron Lynx +21.667s
9 Conrad Laursen Prema +24.471s
10 Bando Badoer Van Amersfoort Racing +28.732s
11 Arvid Lindblad Van Amersfoort Racing +31.710s
12 Kim Hwarang BVM Racing +36.168s
13 Elia Sperandio Maffi Racing +36.903s
14 Jules Castro Van Amersfoort Racing +37.036s
15 Georgios Markogiannis Cram Motorsport +38.406s
16 Frederik Lund R-ace GP +43.679s
17 Emmo Fittipaldi Van Amersfoort Racing +46.037s
18 Giovanni Maschio AS Motorsport +50.202s
19 Alex Partyshev Jenzer Motorsport +50.782s
20 Rishab Jain BWR +51.727s
21 Jonas Ried PHM Racing +55.434s
22 Adam Fitzgerald R-ace GP +57.450s
23 Francisco Soldavini Maffi Racing 1m49.638s
Ret William Karlsson BVM Racing
Ret Pedro Perino US Racing
Ret Niko Lacorte Cetilar Racing by Iron Lynx
Ret Zahcary David US Racing
Fastest lap: Dunne, 1m41.543s

Championship standings
1 Antonelli 244   2 Camara 201   3 Dunne 172   4 Wharton 138   5 Wurz 114   6 Sztuka 100   7 Marcus Amand 83   8 Taylor Barnard 69   9 Nikita Bedrin 66   10 Laursen 58