Nakamura wins in Euro 4 at Monza, Pradel charges from 20th to third

Photo: ACI Sport

Kean Nakamura Berta won the penultimate race of the Euro 4 season at Monza, as Gianmarco Pradel charged from 20th to third.

Prior to Sunday morning’s race, the results of the previous day’s race were changed by multiple penalties.

AKM Motorsport’s Emanuele Oliveri was docked 25 seconds, Prema’s Dion Gowda was penalised 10s, and Aurelia Nobels (ART Grand Prix), Jack Beeton (US Racing), Hiyu Yamakoshi (Van Amersfoort Racing), Enzo Yeh (R-ace GP) and Everett Stack (PHM Racing) were all penalised five seconds.

Beeton, Gowda, Yamakoshi, Olivieri and Yeh had occupied fourth to eighth place, and dropped to 10th, 15th, 11th, 21st and 12th respectively. Prema’s Nakamura and Freddie Slater were promoted from ninth and 10th to fourth and fifth, meaning race runner-up Akshay Bohra went from leading Slater by one point to being eight behind.

US’s Bohra shared the race two front row with PHM’s Davide Larini, with Prema’s Alex Powell and Nakamura on row two.

Bohra took the lead and Powell made his way into second, with Nakamura later overtaking Larini too.

Slater went from 10th to fifth within a lap, and joined the leaders on lap three as Nakamura cleared Powell. A train of eight cars formed on lap four, with Jenzer Motorsport’s Reno Francot leading the fight for ninth but he had a 25s penalty as his team had been working on his car too late pre-race.

Nakamura went to the inside of Bohra at della Roggia and Bohra cut the corners, while Slater overtook Powell for fourth. The top two ran side-by-side again on lap five, and Slater’s overtake at Lesmo 1 sent him into the path of polystyrene debris on track. However Larini then nosed his car ahead into Ascari, and he now had four Prema drivers pressuring him.

There was lots of position changing on lap six, but Larini again managed to end it in third. Slater finally cleared him at della Roggia on lap seven, and a lap later Powell and Jenzer’s Enea Frey were shown on the television feed as receiving black-and-white flags. At that point Pradel had just reached the top 10.

Beeton passed Powell for sixth at della Roggia on lap nine but cut the chicane so let him back past, and ended up dropping behind team-mate Pradel too. The next lap Bohra went for the lead at turn one and della Roggia and the top five bunched up.

Prema’s Tomass Stolcermanis demoted Larini at Parabolica, and Bohra overtook Nakamura as lap 11 began. Nakamura braked late to be back ahead at turn one, but Bohra squeezed past at Curva Grande.

The action picked up again on lap 13, as Stolcermanis and Slater clashed at della Roggia and the former cut the chicane. Pradel swept past him before Ascari, and on lap 15 passed Larini just as Nakamura reclaimed the lead with more late braking.

Bohra tried twice on the final lap to nose ahead, and had to watch Pradel in his mirrors after he slipstreamed past Slater.

Race result (17 laps)