Race 3 concludes the ACI Racing Weekend at Misano World Circuit, a near-perfect weekend for Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who failed to grab his third win due to a final slip-up at the safety car restart, after he had dominated the race. Winning the last one of the weekend was Rafael Camara, the Brazilian driver of Prema Racing, supported by Ferrari Driver Academy. Third with a great move in the final stages of the race is Marcus Amand, author of a good race, who brings US Racing back to the podium at Misano in a weekend more favourable to Prema Racing. Martinius Stenshorne, Van Amersfoort Racing, completes the Rookie podium in P3 along with Camara and Antonelli.

At the start of the race Antonelli gets off to a good start and, after just a few laps, has a clear advantage over the second. Behind him his teammates: in P2 Rafael Camara, then Charlie Wurz and James Wharton, Ferrari driver Academy. The latter slips behind while Alexander Dunne and Marcus Amand, both talented drivers from the German US Racing team, made their way forward. Amand makes a mistake and looses positions, he goes into a corner and re-enters P13 behind his teammate Nikhil Bohra.

The lead remains tight, while the middle of the race is more feisty: Amand, Bohra and Emerson Fittipaldi Jr (Van Amersfoort Racing) put on a show, as they did in race 2, with VAR drivers Brando Badoer and Arias Deukemdjian and Iron Lynx flag bearer Ivan Domingues also entering the battle.

Maya Weug, Iron Dames and Ferrari Driver Academy, leads an excellent race, in P6 gaining position on Nikita Bedrin, PHM Racing. Also putting on a show in the rear of the race, Alfio Spina, Sicilian of BWR Motorsport, with a fine overtaking move on Pedro Clerot, AKM Motorsport.

Kim Hwarang, BVM Motorsport, is rammed by Jules Castro, Van Amersfoort Racing, they both go out. The safety car arrives to nullify Antonelli's accumulated advantage. At the restart Camara moves on Antonelli, who also ends up briefly behind Alex Dunne. The Irishman goes into the dirt and slips behind. It comes down to the final two laps with Antonelli chasing his teammate to get his win back, but a problem at the back with Maya Weug who loses the front wing of her car in a collision and cuts the track in a corner. Her Tatuus is rear-ended by Ethan Ischer, Jenzer Motorsport, in a big incident that also involves Victoria Blokhina, PHM Racing, and Marcos Flack, R-ace GP.  The race ended a few seconds early with a red flag and the classification carried over to the previous lap, so the order of finish was: 1. Camara; 2. Antonelli; 3. Amand; 4. Sztuka; 5. Laursen; 6. Dunne; 8. Weug; 9. Barnard; 10. Deukmedjian.

 

An almost perfect weekend, then, the one of the Junior Mercedes Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who, despite the victory missed at the end, can certainly be satisfied with the performance, an excellent redemption after the first round that little, in terms of points, had repaid his great speed.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli: “I am really happy, it was a good fight back after the bad weekend in Imola and we will try to do our best also in Spa”.

After round 2, Rafael Camara gains the championship lead with 102 pts, followed by Alex Dunne at 79 pts, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli re-enters the race with 69 pts. 4th Kacper Sztuka at 56 pts, 5th James Wharton at 54 pts, Marcus Amand 6th at 49 pts, followed by Martinius Stenshorne at 44 pts. 8th Charlie Wurz at 42 pts, 9th Nikita Bedrin at 29 pts, completes the top 10 Conrad Laursen at 26 pts.

 

Next round: Spa Francorchamps, round 3 in two weeks - 19/06