Home Formula 4Italian F4 McLaren junior Ugochukwu gets his second Italian F4 win at Spa

McLaren junior Ugochukwu gets his second Italian F4 win at Spa

by Ida Wood

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)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Ugo Ugochukwu Prema 21m08.286s
2 Zachary David US Racing +0.768s
3 James Wharton Prema +1.372s
4 Brando Badoer Van Amersfoort Racing +1.994s
5 Matheus Ferreira Van Amersfoort Racing +2.493s
6 Akshay Bohra US Racing +3.698s
7 Tuukka Taponen Prema +4.131s
8 Niko Lacorte Prema +5.451s
9 James Egozi PHM Racing +5.974s
10 Valentin Kluss PHM Racing +6.398s
11 Alfio Spina BVM Racing +7.143s
12 Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi PHM Racing +12.013s
13 Ruiqi Liu US Racing +12.409s
14 Ethan Ischer Jenzer Motorsport +13.367s
15 Raphael Narac R-ace GP +13.509s
16 Frederik Lund AKM Motorsport +13.522s
17 Davide Larini AKM Motorsport +14.440s
18 Kim Hwarang Jenzer Motorsport +14.733s
19 Bianca Bustamante Prema +15.419s
20 Gianmarco Pradel US Racing +15.672s
21 Guido Luchetti Airflow Racing +17.132s
22 Ismail Akhmed Van Amersfoort Racing +18.677s
23 Matteo Quintarelli R-ace GP +22.949s
24 Tina Hausmann AKM Motorsport +27.777s
25 Kacper Sztuka US Racing +31.793s
Ret Ariel Elkin Jenzer Motorsport
Ret Rashid Al Dhaheri Prema
Ret Arvid Lindblad Prema
Fastest lap: David, 2m23.480s

Championship standings
1
Lindblad 154   2 Ugochukwu 124   3 Wharton 108   4 David 100   5 Sztuka 75   6 Badoer 71   7 Lacorte 64   8 Taponen 63   9 Bohra 49   10 Domingues 43