Sztuka doubles up at Paul Ricard with Italian F4 race two win

Photo: ACI Sport

US Racing’s Kacper Sztuka continued where he left off in race one to take another dominant victory in the second Italian Formula 4 race at Paul Ricard.

Sztuka made another perfect start, this time from pole, as Prema’s James Wharton alongside him bogged down.

Prema’s Tuukka Taponen threaded his way between the almost stationary Wharton and his slow-starting Prema team-mate Ugo Ugochukwu to shoot into second going into turn one. However, he was unable to provide an answer to Sztuka’s pace up front.

Points leader Arvid Lindblad was another to make a great getaway, drawing alongside Ugochukwu into turn one. Ugochukwu lost momentum as a result, dropping behind him and then US’s Zachary David at turn five.

After a couple of incidents as the pack made its way through turns three and four, resulting in the retirement of Ruiqi Liu and Aurelia Nobels, the safety car was deployed.

Sztuka immediately rebuilt his lead when racing resumed, as Ugochukwu regained his lost position from David and immediately setting after Lindblad in third.

Ugochukwu was right on Lindblad’s tail at the end of lap eight, with Lindblad moving to the inside to block Ugochukwu’s run. The American admitted afterwards that he almost lost the car as he bounced off the kerb on the inside, before switching back to the outside.

His next move came half a lap later into the Mistral chicane, with Lindblad again defending forcefully and running wide on the entry. Ugochukwu was alongside on the run to Signes but tucked back in behind Lindblad before the corner.

On the next lap, Ugochukwu had another quick look at the inside into turn one before getting another run into the chicane.

Lindblad defended, but Ugochukwu was fully alongside on the exit, before pulling off an audacious move around the outside of the fast left-hander at the end of the straight, and managed to hold on into Le Beausset to take the final podium position.

A black-and-white warning flag had been hown to Lindblad his first robust defence, and after the subsequent move his team manager was immediately summoned to race control.

Behind Lindblad, David held off US team-mate Akshay Bohra for fifth. James Egozi headed his PHM Racing team-mate Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi to take seventh.

Race result (16 laps)