In the last race of the Italian F.4 Championship at Spa Francorchamps, Andrea Kimi Antonelli crowned a perfect weekend. 3 victories and 2 pole positions. Second step of the podium in race 3 for Conrad Laursen, the Dane of Prema Racing who finds the pace and takes home P2. Third was Rafael Camara after a thrilling comeback. The Brazilian started on pole position, but was forced to climb the entire classification after stalling on the grid. Charlie Wurz, P4 in the race, not only completed Prema's second poker of the weekend, but also climbed onto the third step of the Rookie podium with teammates Antonelli and Camara.
The Race
The Tatuus of Ferrari Driver Academy driver Rafael Camara stalls on the podium at the start. Antonelli (Junior Mercedes Driver), starting alongside him, immediately took the lead and began to manage the race. Anthony James Wharton, the other Ferrari driver from Prema, takes P2, but the second twist of race 3 arrives immediately: the Australian is wheel-to-wheel with Nikita Bedrin (PHM Racing), a contact between the two sends Wharton out, who thus ends his race shortly after the start. Bedrin got P3, with Conrad Laursen taking the second position, when the safety car stopped the race.
On the restart, in P4 Charlie Wurz and Marcus Amand, French of US Racing, swapped positions, followed by Alex Dunne and Nikhil Bohra (both US Racing drivers), then Taylor Barnard (PHM Racing), Kacper Sztuka (US Racing) and Maya Weug. The Iron Dames driver pushes steadily, in the hunt for another top 10 after the point won in race 2, then stopped in her attempt by a race contact with teammate Ivan Domingues (Iron Lynx). Dunne tried an overtaking move on the inside on Wurz, but was unsuccessful, while behind them an arduous fight for P5 raged, which also worried the Irish driver, with assaults at 3 by Barnard, Sztuka and Martinus Stenshorne (Van Amersfoort Racing).
Bedrin loses P3 due to a drive through imposed by the race direction following the accident that caused Wharton to retire, bringing him behind. Amand therefore passes P3. Meanwhile, from the back, Rafa Camara makes his way through and manages to pull back to near the top 10. He passes Domingues, Bohra and Sztuka in order, arriving in P7. Wurz made his way past Amand to take third place, Amand was then fourth, followed by Alex Dunne. Camara, who had moved up to sixth, managed to overtake them both at once, passing them in the middle, with a spectacular move. He began his hunt for the podium, in pursuit of his teammate. The Brazilian's comeback was crowned on the penultimate lap, when he passed the Austrian and crowned the performance. To Camara also the fastest lap in race 3 with 2'22.522.
3 out of 3 for Antonelli in the first foreign weekend of the Championship, after the hat-trick almost done at Misano in the second round, he closes the weekend with full points. Thanks to a stunning comeback, however, Camara manages to keep the Championship leadership, with a 3-point margin over the driver from Bologna. Now the appointment will be back in Italy, at Autodromo Piero Taruffi in Vallelunga, in the ACI Racing Weekend on 3 July.
Antonelli: “a great weekend, finally 3 out of 3. It’s amazing to win all 3 races, also because in Misano we missed in race 3. I’m really happy about it, I got really close in the Championship. We will see in Vallelunga, it’s not going to be easy, but I think we can have a great weekend.”
Race 3 classification: 1. Antonelli; 2. Laursen; 3. Camara; 4. Wurz; 5. Dunne; 6. Sztuka; 7. Amand; 8. Stenshorne; 9. Barnard; 10. Bohra.
Standings after round 3: 1. Camara, 147pt; 2. Antonelli, 144pt; 3. Dunne, 108pt; 4. Wharton, 79pt; 5. Wurz, 72pt; 6. Amand, 67 pt; 7. Sztuka, 64pt; 8. Bedrin, 52pt; 9. Stenshorne, 48pt; 10. Laursen, 48 pt.
