Misano World Circuit - At the Misano World Circuit, venue of the opening round of the Italian F.4 Championship, Prema Racing’s Anglo-Japanese driver Kean Nakamura-Berta delivered a perfect weekend. Pole position and three wins out of the four scheduled races, as per the format adopted for a weekend that featured 41 drivers on the grid. With 75 points scored, Nakamura-Berta takes the early lead in the drivers’ standings. Behind him, with 53 points, is teammate Sebastian Wheldon, who claimed victory in the opening race of the weekend, which featured his group. The son of Dan “Lionheart” Wheldon thus took his first win in the series.
In the final race of the weekend, Nakamura-Berta got a clean getaway from pole and held the lead without issues. A strong start also from Salim Hanna (Prema Racing) and Maksimilian Popov (Van Amersfoort Racing), who both passed Wheldon in the early stages. Popov then launched an attack on Hanna to take second place, sealing the final podium. For the Van Amersfoort Racing driver, it was the second P2 finish of the weekend.
Hanna crossed the line in third and claimed his third consecutive Rookie class win, moving to the top of the standings among the newcomers. Fourth place went to Emanuele Olivieri (R-ace GP), who pulled off another spectacular overtake in a weekend where he made two podium appearances. This time it was Wheldon who lost out, dropping to fifth. Sixth was Tomass Stolcermanis (Prema Racing), who pulled off a move on Kabir Anurag (US Racing), the Alpine Academy driver who had a strong start to the season and finished seventh in the final race.
Eighth place went to Oleksandr Bondarev (Prema Racing), part of the Williams Driver Academy, who also secured second place in the Rookie standings. Completing the Rookie podium was Prema Racing’s Newman Chi, ninth overall. Alex Powell (Mercedes Junior, R-ace GP) crossed the line tenth but was later handed a 5-second penalty for causing the puncture that forced Gabriel Gomez (US Racing) to retire, in yet another closely-fought race. The final point in Race 1 went to Bart Harrison (Jenzer Motorsport).
Kean Nakamura-Berta: “I can’t lie, it was incredible. It was an amazing weekend. Pole position, winning all the races, it’s like a dream start. Prema did an incredible job, I drove a mega car. I think from my part, I made very few mistakes throughout the whole weekend. I’m quite happy with myself. It was amazing, just to close off the opening weekend like this. Massive thank you to Prema for that rocket ship, let’s continue like this!”
Maksimilian Popov: “Great race, great car. This time I really had a lot of pace. I was trying to hunt down Kean, but he was obviously pretty fast as well. I’m really happy. Big thanks to the team, we will keep pushing for the next round in Vallelunga.”
Salim Hanna: “Overall, I think it was a hard race, but we did a good job. The start was really good. We made a step forward there, and that’s really promising for the season. I struggled a bit in the first five laps with the tyres, felt the rears were not in, and I didn’t have grip. I battled with Popov, and Olivieri was catching me, so I had to be careful. I put my head down, pulled away a bit from Olivieri and never looked in the mirrors again. Always moving forward, that’s the important thing. Big thanks to the team, my family, and God of course. At Vallelunga, we are going to start from zero, I feel strong and we will work. It won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible.”
The weekend
The first ACI Racing Weekend of the season wrapped up at the Misano World Circuit, marking the opening event for the Italian national circuit racing championships with a highly attended weekend featuring hundreds of cars on track. It also served as the curtain-raiser for the new season of the Italian F.4 Championship, promoted by ACI Sport and WSK Promotion.
The high level of international participation, with 41 drivers from across the world, made it necessary to activate the four-race format: three qualifying races, with drivers split into groups that rotate across heats, and one final race reserved for the top 36 classified competitors from the previous sessions.
Sebastian Wheldon won the opening race of the year (Groups B and C), while Races 2 (Groups A and B) and 3 (Groups A and C) went to Kean Nakamura-Berta, who had also set the fastest time in Friday’s qualifying. Thanks to those results, the Anglo-Japanese driver secured pole for the final, where he completed a dominant performance.
The next round of the Italian F.4 Championship will take place at Vallelunga, from 23 to 25 May, for the second of seven events on the calendar.