Italian F4: Kean Nakamura-Berta doubles up and takes pole for the Final
Misano World Circuit - The Sunday of the Italian F.4 Championship at the ACI Racing Weekend in Misano, opening round of the series promoted by ACI Sport and WSK Promotion, kicked off with Race 3, the last of the qualifying races. On track were the drivers from Groups A and C, for a total of 27 contenders. Once again, Kean Nakamura-Berta came out on top: the Anglo-Japanese driver for Prema Racing made a strong start and led the race from start to finish, doubling up on his Saturday victory.
Lining up alongside him on the front row was teammate Sebastian Wheldon, winner of the season-opening race, who held onto second place all the way to the chequered flag. Not even a safety car restart, triggered by the retirement of Payton Westcott, shuffled the order at the front. The American driver for Van Amersfoort Racing was hit by the Tatuus of Turkish driver Emir Tanju (Viola Formula Racing), suffering rear right suspension damage and retiring from the race. Tanju received a 4-place grid penalty for the next race.
While the top two positions remained unchallenged, there was fierce action throughout the rest of the top ten, with overtakes and battles unfolding across the field.
After the race resumed following swift intervention by the marshals at the Misano World Circuit, Alpine Academy driver Kabir Anurag (US Racing) came under attack from Emanuele Olivieri (R-ace GP). The Italian moved up into fourth and began chasing down Maksimilian Popov (Van Amersfoort Racing), who was running in third. After several attempts, Olivieri pulled off a brilliant move around the outside to claim the final podium spot.
Popov finished fourth, a valuable result in terms of points, combined with his podium on Saturday. Fifth place went to Kabir Anurag, followed by Williams Driver Academy’s Oleksandr Bondarev (Prema Racing), who also claimed Rookie class victory. Joining him on the Rookie podium were teammate Newman Chi of China, seventh overall, and Australian Dante Vinci (Van Amersfoort Racing), who crossed the line in eleventh.
Mercedes junior Alex Powell (R-ace GP) finished eighth after an intense battle with Maxim Rehm (US Racing), which he managed to win in the closing stages. Rehm ended up ninth, while Bart Harrison (Jenzer Motorsport) initially crossed the line in tenth but was later demoted out of the points due to a 5-second time penalty for a track limits infringement during the overtake on Andrija Kostic (US Racing), who thus inherited the final available point.
The Women Trophy race winner was Kornelia Olkucka (Maffi Racing).
There was also action in the midfield, including a notable duel between Emir Tanju and Dupe (PHM Racing), which ended with a successful overtake by the latter. However, Dupe was later handed a 10-second penalty for contact with Kirill Kutskov during a passing attempt on the Maffi Racing driver.
Only the final remains to conclude the weekend.
The last race, scheduled for 25 minutes plus one lap, will see Kean Nakamura-Berta once again starting from pole position, his third of the weekend, having already converted two starts into two wins. The Prema Racing driver has secured the maximum points available so far. Starting alongside him will be Sebastian Wheldon, winner of Race 1 and second in Race 3, currently shaping up as his closest challenger.
Based on the best results from the three qualifying heats, 36 drivers out of 41 entrants have been admitted to the final. Missing out are Olkucka (Maffi Racing), Walther (Maffi Racing), Lorimier (Viola Formula Racing), Duna (Real Racing), and Viisoreanu (Real Racing).
The final race of the opening round of the Italian F.4 Championship is scheduled for 19:30 at the Misano World Circuit.
Kean Nakamura-Berta: “It was a dream start for the weekend. Pole position, two out of two so far. We got a decent launch off the line, then we managed the race all the way. I knew it would be hard to break away from Seb, since you can’t break slipstream. I was losing a bit down the straight, but I made sure I gained in the corners. It was a pretty good race. Big thanks to Prema for everything so far this weekend, it was a dream start to the Italian F4 Championship. I can’t wait for the next race.”
Sebastian Wheldon: “It was a good race. I got a good start. I didn’t really have the pace to challenge for the win in this race. Now we will see what we can do in the final. I want to thank everyone at Prema for giving me such great equipment, every session we are trying to build together. It’s been a good start of the season so far.”
Emanuele Olivieri: “This was a really fun race, I definitely didn’t get bored. The start was good, better than yesterday. After the safety car, I managed to pass the US Racing car. Then I had to wait quite a bit before getting past Popov, because it’s really tough to follow closely on this track. I studied him, and then I managed to pull off a nice overtake. We’re still missing a little bit of pace, but by working well with the team we’re getting there.”