Misano World Circuit - Thrills and twists marked the opening round of the Italian F.4 Championship at the Misano World Circuit, as part of the season-launching ACI Racing Weekend. At the start, confusion caused by several jump starts, including one by Germany’s Maxim Rehm (US Racing), reshuffled the race's early stages. Rehm made a quick getaway and led the opening laps but was later overtaken by Prema Racing drivers Sebastian Wheldon and Salim Hanna before receiving a 10-second penalty for the irregular start.
It was Prema Racing Sebastian Wheldon, talented American and heir of the legendary Dan "Lionheart" Wheldon, who crossed the finish line first, claiming a brilliant debut victory. Second place went to Salim Hanna, the Colombian representing Prema Racing, who also secured Rookie victory with a solid performance. Finnish driver Luka Sammalisto had initially claimed third at the chequered flag, but his joy was short-lived: following the race, the Stewards Panel gave him a 10-second penalty for a jump start, dropping him to seventh in the final classification.
Inheriting third place was his US Racing teammate Gabriel Gomez. The Brazilian fended off continuous attacks from Prema Racing’s Tomass Stolcermanis in a long and spectacular battle. The Latvian finished fourth, followed by China’s Newman Chi (Prema Racing), who took second among the Rookies. Sixth place went to Swiss driver Enea Frey (Jenzer Motorsport), while Serbia’s Andrija Kostic (US Racing) secured eighth.
Ninth across the line and third on the Rookie podium was Artem Severiukhin, also representing Jenzer Motorsport. Rounding out the points-paying positions was Maxim Rehm, demoted to tenth due to his jump-start penalty. The same 10-second sanction was also applied to Dante Vinci (Van Amersfoort Racing), Oleksandr Savinkov (R-ace GP), and Luca Viisoreanu (Real Racing).
In the Women’s Trophy, victory went to Emily Cotty (R-ace GP), who finished 17th overall. Less fortunate was Kornelia Olkucka (Maffi Racing), forced into the pits after a contact incident led to a damaged tyre, rejoining the race one lap down. A similar fate befell Oleksandr Bondarev (Prema Racing – Williams Driver Academy), who dropped out of the lead group due to a damaged front wing sustained during wheel-to-wheel contact with Gabriel Gomez while fighting for top positions.
Race 1 proved to be an exciting and hard-fought contest, getting the Misano World Circuit weekend off to the best possible start. Teams and drivers immediately got back to work to fine-tune their setups ahead of the upcoming challenges. The Group B drivers will return to the track later this afternoon, at 17:10, for the second race of the day, which will also mark the seasonal debut of Group A, led by pole-sitter Kean Nakamura-Berta (Prema Racing). Track conditions, expected to evolve since the morning, could bring even more surprises.
Sebastian Wheldon: "It was a really good feeling. The race went really well, had a good start. I was third on the first lap, then I kept chipping away towards the end of the race and I managed to get first."
Salim Hanna: "I think we did good. We had a good start, then I got behind Maxim in dirty air, and I couldn’t pass him. I made a mistake, then Seb passed me, and that’s how it ended. I think the pace was there, the car was really good. I want to thank the team, God, my family. There’s still a lot to work on, but it’s a good start and we’ll definitely improve."
Emily Cotty: "It was good to recover some positions after a difficult qualifying. We made progress as a team, we took a step forward. Now we’re ready to go out again and keep improving."
Kornelia Olkucka: "The start wasn’t too bad for me, but at some point someone behind hit me. I spun, lost the rear right tyre, had to pit, change it, and then just tried to recover."
Weekend schedule
• Saturday, May 3rd:
o Race 1 (Group B vs Group C) at 11:15
o Race 2 (Group A vs Group B) at 17:10
• Sunday, May 4th:
o Race 3 (Group A vs Group C) at 10:55
o Final race with the top 36 drivers at 19:30
All races will last 25 minutes + 1 lap and will count toward the championship standings.