Adria (RO) 08/06/2014 – All rookies, all promoted. A new Championship, the Italian F.4 Championship powered by Abarth; a new car, the Tatuus F4T014, reliable since the first race; a lot of new drivers at their first experience with car racing but already so skilled and fair behind the wheel, a final satisfaction by ACI Sport and WSK Promotion that managed to produce, together with their technical partners, a well done product. The success of the championship's debut came from the spectacle shown on track, live on Rai Sport 2 and on the live streaming on the official web sites. Deferred broadcast of the event will be also aired on 9 June at 20:30hrs.

The good feeling of Lance Stroll in this brand new race context got concrete in qualifying (double pole position yesterday for the Montreal's driver) and then at the start of race-1, when the Canadian of Prema Power Team got the lead on his team mate - the French Brandon Maisano - that shared the front row with him. Behind them, three drivers battling out their positions. The Milanese Andrea Russo (Diegi Motorsport) came out on top of this scrap leading the Japanese Ukyo Sasahara (Euronova Racing) and the Italian Matteo Cairoli (Antonelli Motorsport). The latter pushed hard since the beginning fighting with Sasahara, to whom he stole the fourth place early on. Meanwhile, Russo had already pulled away though gaining that margin that granted him P3. On top, Stroll built his victory gaining also that margin that allowed him to claim the first race win ahead of Maisano.

Lance Stroll was right anticipating a not easy race-2, due to race-1 top ten grid inversion. The second race at the Adria International Raceway gave a lot of emotions and this time the eighteen years old from Japan Ukyo Sasahara (Euronova Racing), has been good fending off the attacks moved by Stroll (Prema Power Team) in a red hot finale. The Canadian managed to climb the charts after the 5th row start and progressively closed the gap to Sasahara as the latter got the lead from the third row of the grid. Stroll has been choosing inside lines to try and find his way past the rival. Sasahara seemed quite calm fending off all the attacks without leaving gaps open for the Canadian.
Andrea Russo (Diegi Motorsport) and Leonardo Pulcini (Euronova Racing) gained some ground to the leading duo and have been involved themselves in a nice battle for the podium. Sasahara kept anyway his cool and this allowed the Japanese to keep the rivals at bay. Stroll and Russo closed on the podium in order, while Pulcini ended fourth despite deserving himself the podium too.

The final surprise arrived at the go of Race-3 though, when poleman Stroll got off slowly giving way to an excellent Andrea Russo. The Milanese driver took the lead straight away pulling away from Maisano, that was the only one trying to stay close to him. Sasahara tried again to bounce back to a good result, getting into the slipstream offered by Mattia Drudi (Adria Raceway by Cram) in an attempt moved by both drivers to attack Maisano. The strongest of the runners up turned out to be Pulcini that has been counting on an important result for the whole weekend. The Italian got past all the rivals ahead of him and finally got Maisano's slipstream before taking him at the end of a red-hot but extremely correct battle. Fairness has been a great quality emerged from Race-3. This was not put on track by the two drivers charging for the second place, but also by all the others. This is why the duel between Sasahara and the Swiss Alan Valente (Jenzer Motorsport) has been an exciting string of attacks that last more than half of the race without cars getting too close to each other. The fourth place finally went Valente's way, who closed behind Russo, Pulcini and Maisano, has been the icing on the cake of a great racing weekend. The only sorrow bit has been the retirement of Sasahara two thirds into the race.

Andrea Russo is the first leader of the charts as he stands at 53 points, 2 clear of Lance Stroll. The third place is occupied by Leonardo Pulcini, who hauled 30 points thanks to his regular results, Ukyo Sasahara is currently 5 points behind him. The Italian F.4 Trophy powered by Abarth, reserved to over-19 yrs drivers, Brandon Maisano is leading the pack with 63 points and is followed by Keith Camilleri (Malta Formula Racing) and by pilota del Bahrain Ali Al Khalifa (Jenzer Motorsport). The next round of the championship will take place in Imola next 27 – 29 June.