Home Formula 4Italian F4 Motorsport Games gold medallist Andrea Rosso wins in Italian F4

Motorsport Games gold medallist Andrea Rosso wins in Italian F4

by Peter Allen

Andrea Rosso won race two at the Italian Formula 4 season opener at Misano after climbing up from third at the start.

After his faultless drive to victory in his first car race on Saturday, Prema’s Gabriele Mini didn’t make such a good start from pole position and was jumped by both Francesco Pizzi and Rosso on the run to Turn 1.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Pizzi and Cram Motorsport’s Rosso ran side-by-side through the first two corners and Rosso grabbed the lead as Pizzi ran wide off track exiting Turn 2.

Mini then looked to the outside of Pizzi at Turn 4 which allowed fifth-place starter Filip Ugran to get by, with the Jenzer Motorsport-run Romanian then also passing Pizzi for second heading onto the back straight.

All this allowed Rosso – who won gold for Italy in last year’s Motorsport Games F4 Cup – to build a lead of 1.9 seconds by the end of the first lap.

He had stretched that advantage to 3.3s when the safety car came out around midway through to retrieve Chinese rookie Cenyu Han’s car from the gravel trap.

When the race restarted, Rosso was unable to pull away again, and was defending from Ugran moving into the final third of the race.

That allowed Pizzi and Mini to join the fight as well, and Pizzi got past Ugran through Turns 1 and 2, forcing Ugran wide. Mini also got by into Turn 8, only for Ugran to fight back and regain the position.

This helped Rosso to make a gap once again, and he ultimately took victory by 1.3 seconds after Urgan re-passed Pizzi on the final tour.

Pizzi had to defend from Prema’s Mini on the run to the line, forcing his rival towards the pitwall to maintain third.

Prema’s Sebastian Montoya ended up fifth. He was another to demote his team-mate Mini on the first lap, but conceded the place again on lap four. Their team-mate Dino Beganovic, also a rookie, was forced to pit on lap one after running into the back of Montoya and damaging his front wing, meaning he finished 19th.

BVM Racing’s Pietro Delli Guanti edged Prema’s other driver Gabriel Bortoleto for sixth place, while Dexter Patterson beat his Bhaitech team-mates Jesse Salmenautio and Sebastian Ogaard to eighth.

Leonardo Fornaroli started and ran in sixth place in the early laps but later dropped back with front wing damage.

 

Race results (19 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Andrea Rosso Cram Motorsport 32m11.039s
2 Filip Ugran Jenzer Motorsport +1.330s
3 Francesco Pizzi Van Amersfoort Racing +2.864s
4 Gabriele Mini Prema +2.971s
5 Sebastian Montoya Prema +3.358s
6 Pietro Delli Guanti BVM Racing +4.335s
7 Gabriel Bortoleto Prema +4.898s
8 Dexter Patterson Bhaitech +7.124s
9 Jesse Salmenautio Bhaitech +7.585s
10 Sebastian Ogaard Bhaitech +10.580s
11 Jasin Ferati Jenzer Motorsport +13.601s
12 Francesco Simonazzi DRZ Benelli +14.329s
13 Axel Gnos G4 Racing +15.000s
14 Zdenek Chovanec Bhaitech +17.457s
15 Leonardo Fornaroli Iron Lynx +19.562s
16 Piotr Wisnicki Jenzer Motorsport +21.417s
17 Mateusz Kaprzyk Cram Motorsport +22.164s
18 Hamda Al Qubaisi Abu Dhabi Racing +37.663s
19 Dino Beganovic Prema +1 lap
20 Bence Valint Jenzer Motorsport +1 lap
Ret Sebastian Freymuth AS Motorsport
Ret Cenyu Han AKM Motorsport
Fastest lap: Ugran, 1m34.910s

Championship standings
1 Mini 37   2 Pizzi 33   3 Ugran 33   4 Rosso 25   5 Delli Guanti 16   6 Montoya 14   7 Fornaroli 12   8 Bortoleto 12   9 Beganovic 10   10 Patterson 5