Lindblad dominates Misano race two to increase Italian F4 lead

Photo: ACI Sport

Arvid Lindblad scored a dominant win in the second race of the Italian Formula 4 round at Misano to add to his early championship lead.

Red Bull-backed Lindblad led a top-four lock-out for Prema’s quartet of Formula 1 junior drivers, with Ferrari’s James Wharton beating McLaren protege Ugo Ugochukwu to second place, and Tuukka Taponen completing the top four.

As Lindblad built his lead, Wharton caught Ugochukwu in the middle part of the race and eventually found a way past on the outside.

Their battle helped Lindblad to briefly extend his advantage to as much as four seconds, but a couple of slower laps combined with Wharton now being in clean air meant the gap quickly came down to 1.7 seconds.

Lindblad responded though, setting the fastest lap as he ultimately took the win by 3.555 seconds. After five races he now leads the championship by 41 points over Ugochukwu, who finished half a second ahead of Taponen.

Right behind the two rows of Prema cars at the start, Kacper Sztuka stalled in fifth position on the grid and was thankfully avoided by the rest of the field, while Brando Badoer was also a bit slow away from alongside him on the third row.

Badoer’s Van Amersfoort Racing team-mate Ivan Domingues came through from 10th on the grid to finish fifth in front of duelling US Racing drivers Zachary David and Akshay Bohra. Badoer finished eighth in front of Alfio Spina and Gianmarco Pradel.

Two of Prema’s other drivers – Rashid Al Dhaheri and Aurelia Nobels – missed the start, the former reporting a collision in pit-lane before the formation lap. Tina Hausmann also did not take the start due to a possible shoulder muscle injury following her dramatic roll in race one.

Race result (20 laps)