Photo: ACI Sport
Prema’s Freddie Slater claimed his 12th Italian Formula 4 victory of 2024 in race one at Barcelona.
The victory hopes of US Racing’s poleman Akshay Bohra ended immediately as he failed to get going at the start and was thankfully avoided by the whole 32-car pack before he navigated his car to retirement.
Slater swept straight into the lead ahead of US’s Jack Beeton, and at turn one the Alpine-backed Kabir Anurag and Kean Nakamura Berta went side-by-side for third. Nakamura came off worse as he had to take to the escape road and dropped out of the points positions.
There was further drama at turn two as Prema’s Tomass Stolcermanis and AKM Motorsport’s Emanuele Olivieri got beached in the gravel, leading to the safety car being summoned.
Racing resumed on lap four, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi managed to get down the inside of Anurag at turn one after almost being pushed onto the grass down the pit straight.
His team-mate Gustav Jonsson was next to attack Anurag, going for the outside line at turn one on the next lap but failing to get through, while Nakamura’s recovery was failing to go to plan as he had another off.
Slater was not able to escape Beeton up front, while Anurag was doing just enough to hold off Jonsson until lap nine when a dummy move caught Anurag off-guard and Jonsson slipped through on the inside line at turn one.
The safety car was summoned again shortly after, as Cram Motorsport’s Kai Daryanani had been spun off at turn two by light contact with PHM Racing’s Everett Stack after the latter went over the kerbs.
grid Bohra Slater Beeton Anurag Nak Yam Rehm Jons Powe Gowd Rob Oliv Franc Stolc AlDh Popo Pradel Samma Hodeniu Kostic Laini Bondaev Icher Yeh
The next restart was on lap 12 of 16, and Slater sprinted away. Yamakoshi tried to go around the outside of Beeton into the opening corner but had to back out of the move, and US’s Maxim Rehm was another to get squeezed off by Anurag before successfully getting past him.
In the remaining laps Beeton began to close back in on Slater, and was 0.694s behind at the chequered flag. Finishing second lifted him to fifth in the standings.
Prema’s Alex Powell finished fifth ahead of Rehm and Anurag, who scored his first points, and Nakamura’s up-and-down race concluded in 12th place.
The debuting Hudson Schwartz (VAR) and Sasha Bondarev (Prema) came home 18th and 19th.
Race results (16 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Freddie Slater | Prema | 31m47.620s |
| 2 | Jack Beeton | US Racing | +0.694s |
| 3 | Hiyu Yamakoshi | Van Amersfoort Racing | +2.536s |
| 4 | Gustav Jonsson | Van Amersfoort Racing | +3.476s |
| 5 | Alex Powell | Prema | +4.517s |
| 6 | Maxim Rehm | US Racing | +6.491s |
| 7 | Kabir Anurag | US Racing | +7.469s |
| 8 | Dion Gowda | Prema | +8.345s |
| 9 | Maximilian Popov | PHM Racing | +8.751s |
| 10 | Gianmarco Pradel | US Racing | +9.172s |
| 11 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Prema | +9.751s |
| 12 | Kean Nakamura Berta | Prema | +10.166s |
| 13 | Reno Francot | Jenzer Motorsport | +10.806s |
| 14 | Davide Larini | PHM Racing | +11.373s |
| 15 | Ethan Ischer | Jenzer Motorsport | +12.256s |
| 16 | Lin Hodenius | Van Amersfoort Racing | +13.469s |
| 17 | Enzo Yeh | R-ace GP | +13.777s |
| 18 | Hudson Schwartz | Van Amersfoort Racing | +14.451s |
| 19 | Sasha Bondarev | Prema | +16.701s |
| 20 | Everett Stack | PHM Racing | +16.930s |
| 21 | Luca Viisoreanu | Real Racing Team | +19.360s |
| 22 | Alexander Savinkov | AKM Motorsport | +19.601s |
| 23 | Nathanael Berreby | Maffi Racing | +27.420s |
| 24 | Gabriel Holguin | Maffi Racing | +33.077s |
| 25 | Andrija Kostic | Van Amersfoort Racing | +1m30.066s |
| 26 | Enea Frey | Jenzer Motorsport | +3 laps |
| Ret | Kai Daryanani | Cram Motorsport | |
| Ret | Luka Sammalisto | US Racing | |
| Ret | Edu Robinson | US Racing | |
| Ret | Akshay Bohra | US Racing | |
| Ret | Emanuele Olivieri | AKM Motorsport | |
| Ret | Tomass Stolcermanis | Prema | |
| Fastest lap: Slater, 1m42.236s
Championship standings |
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