Sebastian Wheldon romps to E4 race three win at Mugello

Photo: ACI Sport

Prema’s Sebastian Wheldon convincingly won E4’s third race at Mugello on Sunday morning.

He started behind R-ace GP’s Alex Powell and Prema team-mate Kean Nakamura Berta, and could only follow them slowly through the first two laps since damp areas of the track meant the safety car led the field.

Before green flags waved at the start of lap three, there was a three-car pile-up that eliminated Van Amersfoort Racing’s Payton Westcott.

Powell weaved his way to turn one once racing began, and Wheldon looked to the outside but Nakamura left him no room and he briefly went off exiting the corner.

Behind them were PHM Racing’s Reno Francot, Prema’s Salim Hanna Hernandez, VAR’s Dante Vinci and US Racing’s Gabriel Gomez.

Vinci defended the inside line into turn one on lap four but Gomez somehow found room on the inside. They went wheel-to-wheel and Gomez got ahead, completing his move at turn two where two of his wheels went beyond track limits.

Next to attack Vinci was team-mate Maximilian Popov, charging down his inside at turn one. They collided, Popov got ahead but Prema’s Andrea Dupe went past both.

Popov got back ahead of Dupe on lap six, while Vinci lost out to US’s Andrija Kostic. On lap nine he was on Dupe’s tail and spun him off at turn three. The safety car was summoned, putting all the other battles on pause.

Gomez had eyed up Hanna on lap seven, while Wheldon had attacked Nakamura briefly on lap eight. They were the drivers to watch on the lap 11 restart, which began with Powell weaving to turn one and then going deep to cover off Nakamura on his outside.

Wheldon behind had also picked the outside line, and was able to execute a switchback as Powell locked up after the apex. He was just ahead exiting the corner, and was fully in front after turn two. At turn five, Gomez swept past Hanna.

The gap at the front grew thereon, with Wheldon building a 2.6-second lead over Powell in the five remaining laps.

Nakamura was overtaken by Francot later on lap 11, and two late passes brought AKM Motorsport’s Tomass Stolcermanis up to ninth.

Race results (15 laps)