Nakamura resists Gomez charge to win Italian F4’s second Monza race

Photo: ACI Sport

Kean Nakamura-Berta kept a charging Gabriel Gomez at bay to win the second Italian Formula 4 race of the weekend at Monza.

Starting from pole, Nakamura-Berta got across the track to defend the inside and retain the lead through the first chicane, despite locking his brakes with pressure from third-place starter Andrija Kostic alongside him.

A lap later, Kostic locked-up even more and went deep, narrowly avoiding Nakamura-Berta in the process.

Sebastian Wheldon, who had started alongside Nakamura-Berta on the front row, then challenged his Prema team-mate’s lead into the Roggia chicane and cut across the inside of the second apex. Quickly giving up the lead, Wheldon would make the same manoeuvre stick just one lap later.

He got the move done just in time before the safety car was deployed with the sight of two other Prema drivers, Sasha Bondarev and Salim Hanna, stranded in the Parabolica gravel trap. Hanna had appeared to slow on the inside of the bend and was hit from behind by Maximilian Popov, with Bondarev left with nowhere to go.

At the restart it was Wheldon’s turn to lock up spectacularly. He still managed to make the first chicane and stay in the lead, but Nakamura-Berta got a run on him around the outside of Curva Grande and reclaimed the lead into the Roggia.

Wheldon soon fell to fourth, with the US Racing pair of Luka Sammalisto and Gomez both getting past him when they returned to the pit straight.

Gomez, who started from 10th on the grid, quickly passed his team-mate for second. Wheldon was not done, though, coming back past Sammalisto and then getting inside Gomez at Turn 1, only for the Brazilian to hold on around the outside.

With a minute to go, Nakamura-Berta had to go defensive against Gomez into the first corner. Just behind them, Emanuele Olivieri and Artem Severiukhin tangled in their fight over sixth, leaving their cars stranded in the middle of the track and bringing out double-waved yellow flags at the first chicane for the final lap.

Gomez was still able to have one last look at the Roggia for the final time but Nakamura-Berta held on for his sixth win of the season. Wheldon finished just behind Gomez in third, with Sammalisto and Kostic rounding out the top five.

Alex Powell stormed through to sixth after starting 27th.

Race results (14 laps)