Qualifying for the opening round of the Italian F4 Championship at the Misano World Circuit has come to an end. Luka Sammalisto, the Finnish driver for US Racing, set the fastest overall time with a 1’35.492 lap, securing pole position for Race 2 and Race 3 at the head of Group A. The fastest driver in the other series was Prema Racing’s Turkish driver Alp Aksoy, who will start from pole position in Race 1 with Group B.

The 2026 season of the Italian F4 Championship, the single-seater series promoted by ACI Sport and WSK Promotion, gets underway with record-breaking numbers. After the previous record set at Monza in 2022 with 44 cars on the grid, the championship has already surpassed that mark: 47 single-seaters ready to take to the track on Thursday for the collective tests ahead of the opening round of the season at the Misano circuit on the Adriatic Riviera.

Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Academy Programme and Red Bull Racing Pepe Jeans Academy Programme have renewed the contracts of Rafaela Ferreira and Alisha Palmowski for the 2026 F1 Academy season.

Maya Weug executed a dominant drive in Zandvoort to claim her second win of the season, leading every lap to crucially close the gap to her title rival Doriane Pin. The Ferrari driver made the most of starting on pole position to secure her second podium of the weekend, with the second-biggest winning margin in F1 Academy history of 7.3s.

Representing Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Academy Programme and F1 Academy, Rafaela Ferreira will make history as the first Red Bull Academy Programme driver to participate in a Red Bull showrun event. The first female Brazilian F4 race winner, Rafaela is poised to entertain the fans and bring the world of F1 Academy to her home country on the streets of Curitiba, Brazil on March 15, 2025.

Visa Cash App RB Academy Programme is proud to announce that Rafaela Ferreira, the first female race winner of the F4 Brazilian Championship, will look to continue to make history, together, with the VCARB Team for the 2025 F1 Academy season.