Home Formula 4Italian F4 Antonelli to the top of the Italian F4 table with sixth win

Antonelli to the top of the Italian F4 table with sixth win

by Ida Wood

Photo: ACI Sport

Andrea Kimi Antonelli has moved to the head of the Italian Formula 4 points table for the first time by winning race one of the weekend at Vallelunga.

The Prema driver started from pole and made a great start, while team-mates Rafael Camara and Charlie Wurz were slow off the line. Camara was able to keep his second place, while Wurz plummeted from third to 17th and the fourth Prema.

Both drivers had the pace to recover, and Camara set fastest lap as he chased Antonelli early on. However the leader had more than enough in hand to respond with and he started to grow his lead again until the safety car was called out when Cram Motorsport’s Georgios Markogiannis got beached in the gravel.

Antonelli had a lead of 1.6 seconds before the interruption, and in the five laps after he ran away again to win by 2.184s.

Camara and Wharton finished second and third, while Alex Dunne passed his US Racing team-mates after a slow start to come fourth and he even briefly challenged Wharton for position.

PHM Racing’s Taylor Barnard had similar progress, making a few lunging moves and even having a brief trip in the gravel on his way to fifth. Marcus Amand and Kacper Sztuka were sixth and seventh for US, while the battle for eighth raged between Van Amersfoort Racing’s Martinius Stenshorne and Prema duo Conrad Laursen and Wurz.

Stenshorne had the advantage prior to the safety car period, but Laursen passed him the lap after racing resumed and Wurz followed him through. There was just one point for VAR therefore with Stenshorne’s 10th place, while PHM’s Nikita Bedrin made some diving moved late on to finish 11th.

Andrea Frassineti was one of four drivers to finish off the lead lap as he lost his frong wing early on.

Race result (19 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Prema
2 Rafael Camara Prema +2.184s
3 James Wharton Prema +3.789s
4 Alex Dunne US Racing +4.388s
5 Taylor Barnard PHM Racing +4.925s
6 Marcus Amand US Racing +5.656s
7 Kacper Sztuka US Racing +6.366s
8 Conrad Laursen Prema +8.993s
9 Charlie Wurz Prema +9.594s
10 Martinius Stenshorne Van Amersfoort Racing +10.006s
11 Nikita Bedrin PHM Racing +11.758s
12 Ivan Domingues Iron Lynx +12.301s
13 Maya Weug Iron Lynx +12.607s
14 Pedro Perino US Racing +13.005s
15 Nikhil Bohra US Racing +13.382s
16 Valentin Kluss Jenzer Motorsport +13.973s
17 Valerio Rinicella AKM Motorsport +14.932s
18 Alfio Spina BWR Motorsports +17.304s
19 Emmo Fittipaldi Van Amersfoort Racing +17.475s
20 Jules Castro Van Amersfoort Racing +17.748s
21 Brando Badoer Van Amersfoort Racing +18.042s
22 William Karlsson BVM Racing +19.066s
23 Ethan Ischer Jenzer Motorsport +20.519s
24 Viktoria Blokhina PHM Racing +20.880s
25 Adam Fitzgerald R-ace GP +21.713s
26 Kim Hwarang BVM Racing +24.207s
27 Rishab Jain BWR Motorsports +26.272s
28 Nelson Neto Cram Motorsport +27.124s
29 Frederik Lund R-ace GP +30.241s
30 Ismoilkhuja Akhmedkhodjaev AKM Motorsport +34.492s
31 Giovanni Maschio AS Motorsport +49.014s
32 Manuel Quondamcarlo AS Motorsport +1 lap
33 Nicholas Monteiro Cram Motorsport +1 lap
34 Andrea Frassineti Cars Racing +1 lap
35 Elia Sperandio Maffi Racing +2 laps
Ret Georgios Markogiannis Cram Motorsport
Ret Jonas Ried PHM Racing
Fastest lap: Antonelli, 1m34.963s

Championship standings
1
Antonelli 169   2 Camara 165   3 Dunne 120   4 Wharton 94   5 Amand 75   6 Wurz 74   7 Sztuka 70   8 Bedrin 52   9 Laursen 52   10 Stenshorne 49