Yamakoshi wins again as drama delivers him Italian F4 points lead

Photo: ACI Sport

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi led lights-to-flag in Italian Formula 4 race two at Imola.

The poleman only had one moment of pressure during the 17-lap race, when US Racing’s Jack Beeton tried passing him at turn five on lap one, en route to his second win.

Initially Beeton had a gap to team-mate Akshay Bohra and Prema’s Freddie Slater, who were fighting for third. Slater attempted to overtake Bohra at turn one on laps two and three, then settled in behind and the pair hunted down Beeton.

Bohra set the fastest lap on lap five, and on lap 11 tried passing Beeton at the Villeneuve chicane. That failed, and Slater went to overtake him at Piratella but again there was no position change.

On the next lap Bohra dived down Beeton’s inside at the Tamburello chicane and got ahead but did not leave enough room and Beeton went through the gravel. Slater did the same behind, and Bohra now had a gap.

Slater did not want to let him pull away, and knew he had to clear Beeton. But on lap 13 he drove into him at Tosa and they both spun. While Slater got going again in 10th, Beeton dropped to the back then retired in the pits.

That brought Prema’s Dion Gowda and Tomass Stolcermanis up to third and fourth, and they eradicated Yamakoshi’s 4.5s lead on lap 14 as the safety car was called out due to BVM Racing’s Jan Koller stopping with a broken rear-left wheel.

Racing resumed on the last lap, and despite running slightly wide at Tamburello there was no problems for Yamakoshi up front.

Stolcermanis passed Gowda into Tamburello but they then swapped places again, their team-mate Kean Nakamura Berta finished just behind them in fifth and Rashid Al Dhaheri made it four Prema drivers in the top six by holding off VAR’s Gustav Jonsson.

Initially Prema’s Alex Powell and US’s Gianmarco Pradel had been ahead of Gowda and Stolcermanis, but after Pradel passed Powell on lap three he got driven into the back of and he retired with a rear-left delamination while Powell had to pit to replace his front wing.

Al Dhaheri had got into what would end up being sixth place by passing US’s Maxim Rehm, who retired on lap 13. That promoted Jenzer Motorsport’s Reno Francot into the points, then he and R-ace GP’s Luka Sammalisto moved into eighth and ninth after Slater and Beeton’s incident.

But Sammalisto lost his position during the safety car period as he was summoned into the pits due to a damaged rear wing, meaning Slater finished ninth and PHM Racing’s Davide Larini took the final point in 10th. The result meant Yamakoshi took the championship lead from Slater by five points.

Larini had contact early in the race with team-mate Maximilian Popov, who finished 16th then had his engine exploded before he was able to return to the paddock.

Powell came home 29th, and US’s Matheus Ferreira failed to start the race.

Race results (17 laps)