Jack Beeton breaks Italian F4 victory duck in Barcelona race three

Photo: ACI Sport

Jack Beeton led Gianmarco Pradel in a US Racing one-two as he broke his Italian Formula 4 victory duck in the third race at Barcelona.

Beeton started on the front row alongside Prema’s champion Freddie Slater, with his US team-mate Akshay Bohra and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi on row two.

At turn two Beeton was one of several drivers to go off, and the opening lap ended with Slater leading Bohra, Beeton, Pradel, Prema’s Kean Nakamura Berta and Yamakoshi.

Kabir Anurag exited the race with a smoking car on lap two, then team-mate Bohra hit trouble too on lap three as his car slowed and he fell to the back of the order. Beeton and Pradel continued to pressure Slater, and on lap four a deep entry and a handful of controlled oversteer into turn one enabled Beeton to slide past Slater into the lead in a stylish way.

He immediately pulled away, putting himself 1.7 seconds clear by the end of the lap. Slater lost out at the same corner next time by, as Pradel snuck down his inside.

Beeton put in a dominant display thereon, depite a huge lock-up at turn four on lap nine, but he had to go on a charging drive twice as the safety car was summoned on lap 10 following an incident that eliminated Jenzer Motorsport’s Reno Francot and R-ace GP’s Luka Sammalisto.

Francot had been in plenty of battles, being forced onto the grass on the pit straight by US’s Maxim Rehm on lap six, forcing him off at turn one as he went past then spending almost the entire final sector side-by-side with him as Rehm got back ahead. Prema’s Alex Powell had slipstreamed past him on lap seven, an off had followed on lap eight but he had remained in the points positions before retiring.

Racing resumed on lap 14 and Beeton had four laps to repeat his earlier efforts. He achieved that in style, going 1.4s clear in just a single lap then pulling away to win by 3.958s over Pradel who also achieved his best result.

Nakamura had managed to pass Slater on lap eight, and when his team-mate tried passing him on the restart he went off at turn one and did not challenge Nakamura again.

Their other team-mate Tomass Stolcermaniss passed VAR’s Gustav Jonsson at turn two on lap six after some side-by-side action, then got by Yamakoshi at the end of the race to finish sixth.

Powell finished eighth, with PHM Racing’s Davide Larini and Jenzer’s Enea Frey taking the final points.

Rehm got as high as seventh, having passed Jonsson, but after the restart he lost out in all of his battles and fell to 12th. Just behind him was new team-mate Edu Robinson.

Race results (17 laps)