The morning double qualifying session comes to an ending at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. Forty-four cars are on track, starting from 8:30, with the track temperature at 13° and humidity at 97%. Traffic conditions so far unseen in the Italian F.4 Championship do not stop PREMA Racing drivers who bring home a triple success. Charlie Wurz will be the poleman of race 1, starting today at 15:10. The first position in race 2 goes to Championship leader Kimi Antonelli. In race 3 to start from the first position will be Brazilian Rafael Camara.

Very difficult qualifying conditions on the Brianza track, with the narrow variants reducing the spaces to find the fast lap in the exceptional amount of Tatuus on the track. Some problems already in the very early stages, when the session is interrupted just at the beginning, forcing all drivers to pit in. Then it resumes and continues without interruption: the Austrian Wurz comes out victorious, signing the best lap at 1'52.949. Marcus Amand, US Racing, remains sticked to him, in the afternoon race he will start from the front row with a gap in qualifying of just 2 thousandths. Still very small is then the gap from the third, Rafa Camara, who sets on the stopwatch a gap of +0.011. Flanking him again is a US Racing driver, Pole Kacper Sztuka, at +0.165. He is followed by Alexander Dunne (US Racing) at +0.229 and Antonelli at +0.350. The first three rows are thus evenly distributed between PREMA drivers and those of the German US Racing team. James Anthony Wharton (PREMA Racing) closes qualifying in P7 with a gap of +0.432, closely followed by Van Amersfoort Racing's Norwegian Martinius Stenshorne (+0.456). Then closing out the top 10 are Nikhil Bohra (US Racing) with +0.519 and Conrad Laursen (PREMA Racing) with +0.717.

 

 

The second qualifying session suffers more interruptions, with problems for William Karlsson (BVM Racing) and Jef Machiels (Monlau Motorsport), who close without setting any valid time. Camara held off the best lap for the longest part of the session, but was bested at the end by Antonelli, who took home the pole position on the very last lap with 1'52.722. Also parading ahead with him are Stenshorne (+0.019) and Dunne (+0.030). However, Camara holds out on the second row, with P4 at +0.111. Once again, therefore, very small gaps for the drivers in the first starting blocks of the grid, in an appointment that promises to be very balanced and full of battles on the track. From the third row will start Wurz (+0.363) and Arvid Lindblad, British driver of Van Amersfoort Racing (+0.441). US Racing's Malta driver, David Zachary, takes P7 with +0.476, joined in Race 2 start on the fourth row by Wharton (+0.501). From behind them will start instead Laursen (+0.556) and the experienced French R-ace GP driver Hadrien David (+0.606) already successfully employed by the team this year in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine.

The third pole, determined by the second-best lap recorded between the two sessions, goes to Camara with 1'53.068. Joining him in the last race of the weekend will be Stenshorne (+0.173), who thus earns the front row twice this weekend. Right behind them a Prema duo with Antonelli (+0.209) and Wurz (+0.297). On the third row is a pair of US Racing drivers with Amand (+0.332) and Sztuka (+0.351), followed by Laursen (+0.359) and PHM Racing Englishman Taylor Barnard (+0.388). Rounding out the top 10 are Wharton (+0.409) and Bohra (+0.625).

The first race of the weekend will start as early as today, Saturday, Oct. 8, at 15:10. The start of race 2 is Sunday, October 9, at 9:10, with the last race in the evening, starting at 17:10. All races will be broadcast live on ACI Sport TV, on Motorsport.tv and on the Facebook and Youtube channels of the Italian F.4 Championship.

 

Charlie Wurz: “I can only be extremely happy, especially on a track like Monza to get the pole position. I think the lap was not the best of laps, but I had a good slipstream, a good position on track and we worked hard with the team through the test to perfect the set up and we finally got it and it felt really good. I am so happy to get pole position, my first one of the year, in a track like this is awesome.” 

Andrea Kimi Antonelli: “was a hell of a qualifying with a lot of red flags. We had only 2 good laps and luckily the last one was good enough for pole position. I am really happy to start in pole position. It is going to be a different feeling with a lot of cars behind, you might feel a bit of pressure, but I will approach turn 1 as I always did and we’ll see what we can do.”

Rafael Camara: “I think was a good quali, we are always in the top 5 and then in race 3 I got the pole. It is quite good to start in the front, but the race is long, here we a big slipstream, so is going to be quite a crazy race. The important thing is to start always in top 5 and fight for all the races.”