Photo: ACI Sport
Prema’s Kean Nakamura-Berta took victory in a safety car-dominated E4 race at Monza to extend his points lead with two races remaining.
The combination of Formula 4 and Monza inevitably seems to produce plentiful safety cars and this was no exception. However, the race produced some scintillating racing in the brief periods of green flag running.
Nakamura-Berta had inherited pole after a two-place grid penalty was handed to team-mate Sebastian Wheldon but failed to capitalise. Prema’s Newman Chi, starting from the front row, attacked on the outside into the first corner, emerging in front, with Wheldon and US Racing’s Gabriel Gomez demoting Nakamura-Berta to fourth.
Incidents involving Ludovico Busso, Guy Albag and Payton Westcott brought out the first of three safety cars.
At the restart, Chi locked up into the Rettifilo, taking to the escape road and rejoining ahead of Gomez who had passed Wheldon. Chi handed the place to Gomez, dropping behind Wheldon in the process.
Wheldon attacked Gomez for the lead into Parabolica but Nakamura-Berta benefitted from the double tow to draft past both into the first chicane just as the safety car reappeared after a collision between the two Jenzer cars of Teo Schropp and Nicolas Cortes, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Alexander Ruta also involved.
Nakamura-Berta backed the field up before leaving his launch to the last moment. Despite weaving down the straight to break the tow, Nakamura-Berta still had to fend off a challenge from Wheldon.
A further incident at the Roggia brought out the safety car once more. This time Nakamura-Berta went early at the restart, surprising his opponents and leaving Wheldon defending from Gomez.
Having defended his position, Wheldon closed in on Nakamura-Berta, cutting the Roggia chicane to get past on the final lap, although he wisely decided to concede the position.
Wheldon held on for second ahead of Gomez with Chi in fourth despite a bent front wing. US Racing’s Kabir Anurag took fifth with Maximilian Popov in sixth for VAR.
Race results (12 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Kean Nakamura-Berta | Prema Racing | 33m05.338s |
| 2 | Sebastian Wheldon | Prema Racing | +0.476s |
| 3 | Gabriel Gomez | US Racing | +1.113s |
| 4 | Newman Chi | Prema Racing | +2.565s |
| 5 | Kabir Anurag | US Racing | +2.712s |
| 6 | Maximilian Popov | Van Amersfoort Racing | +2.904s |
| 7 | Andrija Kostic | US Racing | +3.001s |
| 8 | Reno Francot | PHM Racing | +3.093s |
| 9 | Salim Hanna | Prema Racing | +3.767s |
| 10 | Sasha Bondarev | Prema Racing | +4.166s |
| 11 | Andy Consani | R-ace GP | +5.884s |
| 12 | Oleksandr Savinkov | R-ace GP | +11.027s |
| 13 | Alex Powell | R-ace GP | +11.068s |
| 14 | Dante Vinci | Van Amersfoort Racing | +11.129s |
| 15 | Niccolo Maccagnani | BVM Racing | +11.404s |
| 16 | Arjen Kräling | US Racing | +11.655s |
| 17 | Evan Michelini | AKM Motorsport | +12.632s |
| 18 | Andre Rodriguez | Van Amersfoort Racing | +13.303s |
| 19 | Guy Albag | R-ace GP | +13.933s |
| 20 | Emily Cotty | R-ace GP | +14.233s |
| 21 | Mathilda Paatz | AS Motorsport | +15.009s |
| 22 | Lucas Nanji | Prema Racing | +16.697s |
| 23 | Abdullah Kamel | AKM Motorsport | +21.105s |
| 24 | Ginevra Panzeri | AKM Motorsport | +21.864s |
| 25 | Bader Al Sulaiti | Jenzer Motorsport | +2 laps |
| Ret | Ary Bansal | US Racing | |
| Ret | Elia Weiss | Jenzer Motorsport | |
| Ret | Teo Schropp | Jenzer Motorsport | |
| Ret | Alexander Ruta | Van Amersfoort Racing | |
| Ret | Nicolas Cortes | Jenzer Motorsport | |
| Ret | Andrea Dupe | Prema Racing | |
| Ret | Ludovico Busso | US Racing | |
| Ret | Payton Westcott | Van Amersfoort Racing | |
| Fastest lap: Wheldon, 1m52.635s
Championship standings |
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