Photo: ACI Sport
Akshay Bohra soaked up pressure from Hiyu Yamakoshi to win the first race of this year’s Euro 4 championship at Mugello.
US Racing driver Bohra, who claimed a triple pole in qualifying earlier, kept hold of the lead at the start ahead of fellow front-row starter Yamakoshi of Van Amersfoort Racing.
The race ran uninterrupted until the end and while Bohra could never extend his gap to Yamakoshi over one second, he was also not forced to drive defensively and ultimately sealed victory by 0.687s.
Gustav Jonsson also started and finished in third to seal a double podium for VAR despite a hairy wide moment through the gravel on lap three. That put the Swede into the clutches of Kean Nakamura-Berta, but he was able to rebuild a gap later on.
At a track where he scored an Italian Formula 4 hat-trick last month, it’s been a quiet weekend so far for Freddie Slater – with his fifth-place the first time he’s finished in the points and not on the top step in Europe this year. Having started sixth, Slater battled his way by Prema team-mate Rashid Al Dhaheri on the first lap.
Jack Beeton also got past Al Dhaheri but then slowed and pitted on lap two and retired – a fate that would also befall Gianmarco Pradel and Tomass Stolcermanis in the early stages.
Race result (18 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Akshay Bohra | US Racing | 33m13.229s |
| 2 | Hiyu Yamakoshi | Van Amersfoort Racing | +0.687s |
| 3 | Gustav Jonsson | Van Amersfoort Racing | +4.196s |
| 4 | Kean Nakamura-Berta | Prema Racing | +7.443s |
| 5 | Freddie Slater | Prema Racing | +8.668s |
| 6 | Dion Gowda | Prema Racing | +9.594s |
| 7 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Prema Racing | +10.342s |
| 8 | Maxim Rehm | US Racing | +13.459s |
| 9 | Alex Powell | Prema Racing | +14.316s |
| 10 | Ethan Ischer | Jenzer Motorsport | +26.942s |
| 11 | Enea Frey | Jenzer Motorsport | +33.666s |
| 12 | Maximilian Popov | PHM Racing | +33.680s |
| 13 | Emanuele Olivieri | AKM Motorsport | +33.987s |
| 14 | Enzo Yeh | R-ace GP | +34.674s |
| 15 | Davide Larini | PHM Racing | +37.396s |
| 16 | Luca Viisoreanu | Real Racing | +38.414s |
| 17 | Alvise Rodella | Van Amersfoort Racing | +38.601s |
| 18 | Gabriel Gomez | PHM Racing | +40.426s |
| 19 | Everett Stack | PHM Racing | +44.153s |
| 20 | Oleksandr Savinkov | AKM Motorsport | +47.755s |
| 21 | Mattia Marchiante | AKM Motorsport | +1m04.799s |
| 22 | Andrija Kostic | Van Amersfoort Racing | +2 laps |
| Ret | Lin Hodenius | Van Amersfoort Racing | |
| Ret | Tomass Stolcermanis | Prema Racing | |
| Ret | Kabir Anurag | US Racing | |
| Ret | Jack Beeton | US Racing | |
| Ret | Gianmarco Pradel | US Racing | |
| Fastest lap: Gowda, 1m49.635s | |||