Wheldon wins Italian F4 race four to move back up to second in points

Photo: ACI Sport

Sebastian Wheldon won the fourth Italian Formula 4 race at Misano to move back up to second in the points table with one race to go of 2025.

The Prema driver started from pole and covered the outside line entering turn one to keep team-mate Kean Nakamura Berta at bay. Further back, US Racing’s Gabriel Gomez and Jan Koller both took to the grass down the pit straight and lost ground.

Nakamura got past Wheldon a few corners later, and US’s Luka Sammalisto overtook Prema’s Newman Chi for fourth.

At the end of the lap there was a crash involving multiple cars, with Jenzer Motorsport’s Bader Al Sulaiti eliminated on tue spot while R-ace GP’s Guy Albag had to pit and BVM Racing’s Niccolo Maccagnani then did the same a lap later.

Sammalisto dived past Prema’s Salim Hanna Hernandez at the end of the back straight on lap three, and Wheldon set back-to-back fastest laps up front before the field was bunched back together on lap four due to the safety car being summoned.

R-ace GP’s Alexander Savinkov and Cram Motorsport’s Oscar Repetto had crashed at turn one, and just before racing was neutralised Gomez overtook Maffi Racing’s Kirill Kutskov for eighth.

Gomez was behind Prema’s Andrea Dupe and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Maximilian Popov for the lap six restart, and managed to get around the outside of Popov.

Wheldon’s pace advantage continued, as he passed Nakamura starting lap seven then lowered the pace seven times in the race’s second half to win by 3.159 seconds.

Hanna meanwhile dropped down the order. He lost fourth to Chi at turn seven on lap 11 of 16, and tried fighting back later in the lap but it resulted in contact.

Next to attack him was Popov, who had climbed two places on lap eight after Dupe had gone off at turn one, got overly defensive against Gomez later in the lap and left a gap for Popov to pass both.

When Popov made his dive on Hanna on lap 13, Gomez immediately followed him through and then started attacking Popov again through the next two laps but could not make an overtake happen.

Kutskov snatched eighth from Dupe on the penultimate lap, having held off prolonged pressure from R-ace’s Emanuele Olivieri.

Prema’s Sasha Bondarev and VAR’s Dante Vinci had been in points contention until they clashed and damaged their cars.

Race results (16 laps)