Photo: ACI Sport
McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu cruised to a comfortable win in the second Italian Formula 4 race of the weekend at Imola.
The Prema driver made a perfect getaway after an early safety car period, rapidly extending his lead over team-mate Arvid Lindblad to over three seconds. He was then able to control the gap over the Red Bull junior to the finish.
Ugochukwu’s speed advantage was such that his fastest lap of the race was almost half a second quicker than any other driver managed.
Lindblad was tailed home by Zachary David for US Racing, taking second by just 0.65s at the flag.
Ugochukwu had to recover from a poor start which cost him the early lead as the fast-starting Kacper Sztuka, the winner of the opening race, stormed ahead into Tamburello on lap one.
However, Ugochukwu pulled off a lovely move to pass the US Racing driver around the outside entering Villeneuve before holding on to take the apex and pull away.
This allowed Lindblad to immediately follow him through into second at the next corner, Tosa.
Prema’s Tuukka Taponen was trying to make up places after a problematic qualifying, but clipped Gianmarco Pradel into the gravel at Tamburello as they battled for ninth, bringing out the safety car.
David and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Ivan Domingues relegated Sztuka to fifth, but the Pole was soon dropping through the field and he was forced back to the pits to retire.
In the closing stages, the most entertaining battle was between Alfio Spina and Taponen for fifth, with the Ferrari junior right on the BVM Racing driver’s tail but unable to find a way through.
VAR’s Matheus Ferreira put in a storming drive from the back of the grid to get up to 12th place, but then became stuck behind Prema’s Aurelia Nobels.
The unfortunate Akshay Bohra was pushed into the pits from his fourth-place grid position on the dummy grid. The US Racing driver was able to join the race but was too far down to make any impression, finishing in 19th.
Race result (15 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Prema | 28m05.370s |
| 2 | Arvid Lindblad | Prema | +3.422s |
| 3 | Zachary David | US Racing | +4.073s |
| 4 | Ivan Domingues | Van Amersfoort Racing | +5.402s |
| 5 | Alfio Spina | BVM Racing | +7.535s |
| 6 | Tuukka Taponen | Prema | +7.882s |
| 7 | Valentin Klus | PHM Racing | +13.056s |
| 8 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Prema | +13.346s |
| 9 | Enzo Deligny | AKM Motorsport | +14.295s |
| 10 | Jesse Carrasquedo Jr | BVM Racing | +18.828s |
| 11 | Aurelia Nobels | Prema | +19.115s |
| 12 | Matheus Ferreira | Van Amersfoort Racing | +19.231s |
| 13 | Jack Beeton | Van Amersfoort Racing | +20.339s |
| 14 | Andrea Frassineti | BVM Racing | +20.855s |
| 15 | Viktoria Blokhina | PHM Racing | +23.461s |
| 16 | Matteo Quintarelli | R-ace GP | +24.199s |
| 17 | Davide Larini | AKM Motorsport | +24.851s |
| 18 | Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi | PHM Racing | +25.741s |
| 19 | Akshay Bohra | US Racing | +27.747s |
| 20 | Tina Hausmann | AKM Motorsport | +33.869s |
| 21 | Manuel Quondamcarlo | AS Motorsport | +33.962s |
| 22 | Ismail Akhmed | Van Amersfoort Racing | +35.029s |
| 23 | Guido Luchetti | Airflow Racing | +39.303s |
| Ret | Kacper Sztuka | US Racing | |
| Ret | Gianmarco Pradel | US Racing | |
| Fastest lap: Badoer, 1m44.521s
Championship standings |
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