McLaren junior Ugochukwu gets his second Italian F4 win at Spa

Photo: ACI Sport

McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu won the final Italian Formula 4 race at Spa-Francorchamps, which was thankfully far cleaner than the first two.

Ugochukwu qualified sixth, and it was US Racing’s Kacper Sztuka who was on pole ahead of points leader Arvid Lindblad, race one and two winner James Wharton, Zachary David and Brando Badoer.

David passed Wharton on the run down to Raidillon on lap one, and Lindblad then took the lead frm Sztuka by going around the outside of Les Combes. However it was only brief, as he then went off and Sztuka started dropping down the order too, leaving Wharton in the lead until David passed him at Bruxelles.

Ugochukwu had got into second place before the end of the lap, and the safety car was called out on lap two as Rashid Al Dhaheri spun around Ariel Elkin at La Source and then got himself beached in the gravel on the outside of the corner.

Racing resumed on lap four and Ugochukwu passed David for the lead at the Bus Stop chicane. On the next lap he looked like he would come under pressure from David, but he had to back out of his attack when Wharton started attacking him.

It was similar on the next lap as Ugochukwu had to defend at Les Combes, then through the final two laps he tried to break the tow. The race ended on lap eight due to local noise restrictions, and he won by 0.768 seconds to bring Lindblad’s championship lead down to 30 points.

Lindblad retired after his lap one drama, while Sztuka showed his pace at the back of the field but did not progress from 25th place.

There was midfield action courtesy of Alfio Spina,who just missed out on finishing the points after having an off in the gravel while fighting Valentin Kluss on the restart lap then later getting into battles at La Source and Les Combes.

Race result (8 laps)