Campagnano di Roma (RM) - At the Autodromo Piero Taruffi di Vallelunga, venue of the second round of the Italian F4 Championship, US Racing’s Luka Sammalisto completed a perfect weekend. Three wins from the three races he contested for the Finnish driver, who only missed Race 2 because of the group rotation format, with that race instead won by teammate Edu Robinson.
The Spanish-British US Racing driver was himself one of the standout performers of the weekend, scoring one victory and two second-place finishes, including P2 in the Final. It was also a strong weekend for David Cosma-Cristofor (Prema Racing), who crossed the line inside the top three in all three races. However, a penalty in Race 1 had dropped him back to eighth place. After finishing second in Race 2, the Romanian driver completed the weekend with another podium by taking third in the Final.
Fourth place in the last race of the weekend went to Alp Aksoy. The Prema Racing driver claimed three consecutive Rookie victories thanks to his third place in Race 1 and two fourth-place finishes in the other races he contested. With this points haul, the Turkish driver remains championship leader on 144 points, but Sammalisto is now only six points behind on 138, setting up an exciting battle ahead of next month’s round at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.
Cosma-Cristofor now sits third in the standings on 121 points, while Robinson’s excellent weekend has launched him firmly into the title fight in fourth place with 110 points. Fifth in the standings is Oleksandr Savinkov (US Racing) on 102 points, level with David Walther (US Racing).
Savinkov himself finished fifth in the Final, crossing the line behind Aksoy after repeatedly pressuring him throughout the race without managing to complete an overtake. Sixth place went to David Walther, who continues to impress with both his speed and tactical maturity.
Thomas Bearman (Van Amersfoort Racing) finished seventh in the final race at Vallelunga after battling with Kenzo Craigie, who crossed the line eighth. The R-ace GP Mercedes junior also secured second place on the Rookie podium. Ary Bansal (US Racing) finished ninth ahead of German teammate Arjen Kraling.
Italian US Racing driver Ludovico Busso finished 11th ahead of Oscar Repetto (PHM Racing), who completed the Rookie podium with 12th overall. The remaining points-paying positions went to Roman Kamyab (Prema Racing) in 13th, Florentin Hattemer (Trident Motorsport), and Danish driver Knud Nielsen (Real Racing).
In the Women’s Trophy, Ginevra Panzeri claimed victory in the Final with 28th overall.
Luka Sammalisto: “It’s been a perfect weekend, except for qualifying, where Edu beat me and I ended up P2 in my group. Big thanks to the whole US Racing team and all the sponsors who keep supporting me. This weekend proved what we are capable of. I hope we can keep doing it in the next races as well. We got the hat-trick here, and hopefully we can do it again at Monza!”
Edu Robinson: “It’s been a great weekend overall for US Racing, we collected so many trophies as a team! Huge congratulations to Luka for the three wins. This race was really good as well. I had a strong start, but Luka did too. We had a very similar pace, and I couldn’t really close the gap.”
David Cosma-Cristofor: “I finished every race on track inside the top three, which is a really good improvement compared to the Misano round, where I fixed a few things regarding my racecraft. Right now, I think US Racing is one step ahead. It was really difficult to match their pace, but I’m happy we still managed to finish P3. It’s a good result and very important points for the championship.”
Ginevra Panzeri: “It’s a great satisfaction, especially in the Italian Championship, which is the toughest one. Despite some difficulties during the weekend, I managed to bring home a good result. Starting uphill into Turn 1 while managing brake, clutch and throttle isn’t easy, but I handled it well!”