Kean Nakamura-Berta secured his second victory of the season at The Temple of Speed. Having started from pole position in the first of the weekend’s three races, the PREMA Racing driver dominated from lights to flag and scored valuable points to move into the championship lead.
Emanuele Olivieri claimed second place and his second podium finish of the season. On home soil, the R-ace GP driver topped the Rookie class following an early battle with PREMA Racing’s Salim Hanna, who eventually completed the podium in third.
Race report
The start was chaotic, with Nakamura-Berta holding onto the lead. Behind him, Hanna overtook Olivieri to move into second place. MP Motorsport’s Zhenrui Chi ran fourth, while Rashid Al Dhaheri maintained fifth position.
At the first chicane, a multi-car incident resulted in the immediate retirement of Rodin Motorsport drivers Reza Seewooruthun and Alex Ninovic, Maksimilian Popov (Trident), Francisco Macedo (Van Amersfoort Racing), Yuko Sano (R-ace GP) and Mattéo Giaccardi (ART Grand Prix). Alexandre Munoz (ART Grand Prix) was also involved and was later forced to pit for a front-wing replacement.
After two laps behind the Safety Car, racing resumed, and Olivieri managed to pass Hanna on his second attempt. Al Dhaheri gained a position on Chi, but then dropped back to 11th place. This allowed Alexander Abkhazava, who had made an excellent start, to move up to fourth, while his team-mate Sebastian Wheldon climbed to fifth.
By lap six, Olivieri had reduced the gap to Nakamura-Berta to just six-tenths of a second. Meanwhile, an intense battle developed between Hanna, Abkhazava and Wheldon, with Al Dhaheri closing back onto the group. The R-ace GP driver overtook Abkhazava, but on lap eight, the latter made contact with him at the entry to Ascari, sending him into a spin.
At the start of lap 11, Olivieri briefly moved ahead of Nakamura-Berta at the first chicane, but the PREMA Racing driver fought back and retook the lead. At the same time, Wheldon launched an attack on Hanna. However, it was Abkhazava who capitalised, before taking the chequered flag in fifth place.
At the finish, Nakamura-Berta crossed the line 0.705 seconds ahead of Olivieri, who in turn finished ahead of Hanna. Chi came home sixth, closely followed by Tomass Stolcermanis (PREMA Racing) and Jan Przyrowski (RPM), the latter also setting the fastest lap of the race. Reno Francot (CL Motorsport) and Gabriel Gomez (Rodin Motorsport) completed the top ten.
Kean Nakamura-Berta (PREMA Racing, Race 1 winner): "Monza is statistically my strongest circuit, and it’s always a place where I really enjoy driving. The team has done an incredible job throughout the weekend, and the car has been competitive from the very start. PREMA Racing has traditionally been very strong at the Italian circuits, and I think my experience here from two seasons in Italian F4 has also helped me understand how to manage the race. It’s a combination of many factors, but overall everything came together perfectly today."
Emanuele Olivieri (R-ace GP, 2nd and Rookie winner): "It feels great to achieve this result at my home race. We knew starting from the front row would give us a good opportunity, but at Monza, anything can happen, especially with such a competitive field. After the Safety Car restart, I was able to put some pressure on Kean, and we showed strong pace throughout the race. We had been competitive since Free Practice, so I knew we had the potential to fight at the front. I used a lot of my push-to-pass to challenge for the lead, and we had a good battle. In the end, I had to focus on defending and bringing home solid points. Overall, it has been a very positive race, and I'm happy to secure another podium in front of my home crowd."
Salim Hanna (PREMA Racing, 3rd): "I made a strong start and, as a team, we've been very competitive. However, after the Safety Car, my restart could have been better, and that's definitely an area we need to work on. Once Emanuele got past me, I tried to manage my push-to-pass allocation for the remainder of the race, but with pressure coming from behind, I wasn't really able to save as much as I would have liked. Overall, I think we can still make further progress, both in terms of push-to-pass management and car balance. That said, we've made a significant step forward compared to Spa, where we didn't have the results we deserved. Finishing on the podium is a positive outcome and gives us a good foundation to build on for the rest of the weekend."
