With the first race of the Italian F.4 Championship at Misano World Circuit comes Andrea Kimi Antonelli's first win in the Championship. The driver of Prema Team, Junior Mercedes Driver, brings home a hard-fought victory in a long duel with teammate Rafael Camara, Ferrari Driver Academy. The internal struggle between the two had already been staged in the first round at Imola. On that occasion the Brazilian had won, this time it was the Italian driver, also representing ACI Team Italia on track, who got the best of it. Third is the Irishman Alexander Dunne, US Racing, taking advantage of the fight on the final turns between James Wharton and Charlie Wurz, thus ruining the party for the four Prema Racing drivers who had dominated the lead.
A complex race. In addition to the great internal competition of the Italian F.4 Championship, which brings 36 drivers of 23 different nationalities and 14 teams to the Misano track, confirming itself as the most exciting and competitive F.4 series on the international scene, there are also the difficulties of a track that sees more than 200 cars of different categories racing over the weekend.
The interpretation of the race was difficult, therefore, in track conditions that are always changing and give no references. At the start Camara takes P1 over the poleman, then the battle breaks out. Martinus Stenshorne, Van Amersfoort Racing, and Taylor Barnard, PHM Racing, go off the track on the tramonto corner. Then several spins in the rear at the carro turn. The race freezes with the entry of the safety car to re-establish safety conditions.
At the restart, an excellent overtaking move by Conrad Laursen, the Dane of Prema Racing, on the Franco-Finnish driver Marcus Amand of the German US Racing team. He passed him on the outside with a fine manoeuvre at the exit of the tramonto turn and took P6, before starting to attack Dunne in P5. Maya Weug, Ferrari Driver Academy driver from Iron Dames, took advantage and slipped past Amand.
With the race lead being all Prema, battles broke out within the group, with Nikita Bedrin, PHM Racing, moving up on New Yorker Nikhil Bohra (US Racing). Also good was the race of Alfio Spina, Sicilian driver from BWR Motorsport, one of the Italian representatives in a series that embraces drivers from 4 different continents.
On the final laps, the tussle also heated up in the lead between Camara and Antonelli, the two of them having a history of battles since their careers in karting, and brought the Ferrari-Mercedes dualism back on stage. With a fine overtaking manouvre on the inside, Antonelli took the lead of the race. After an impeccable qualifying, the Italian driver cannot settle for anything other than a victory. The tussle also moved behind them, with Wharton in P3 being attacked by Wurz. Both were, however, slipped by Dunne, who took advantage of his experience and ruined the party for Prema Racing. The Austrian finally manages to pass his partner and reaches P4.
The order of arrival is therefore: 1. Antonelli; 2. Camara; 3. Dunne; 4. Wurz; 5. Wharton; 6. Laursen; 7. Weug; 8. Amand; 9. Bedrin; 10. Fittipaldi. An excellent result at the Misano World Circuit for the Brazilian, son of Emerson Fittipaldi, of Van Amersfoort Racing, who, with a top 10, obtained his first points of the season in the Italian F.4 Championship certified by FIA.
Oleksander Partyshev, Jenzer Motorsport, who had remained under medical observation after his car had bounced off the kerb in qualifying, hitting back with the recoil on the driver's back, did not take part in the race.
The Italian F.4 Championship certified by FIA, the single-seater series of ACI Sport promoted by WSK Promotion, will bring the show back to the track of the Romagna Riviera tomorrow at 9.40 with race 2 and again at 17.40 with the last race of the weekend.
