Niccolò Maccagnani got the better of his Prema Racing teammate David Cosma-Cristofor at the start, taking the lead into Turn 1. Kenzo Craigie also capitalised on the battle between the two Prema drivers, moving into second after overtaking the Romanian. The Mercedes Junior Team driver repeatedly looked for an opportunity to challenge Maccagnani, but the Ferrari Driver Academy member defended brilliantly throughout the race, including two Safety Car restarts, the second of which led to a thrilling final lap.
Cosma-Cristofor initially held third before eventually losing the position to Luka Sammalisto (US Racing). Starting from the third row, the Finnish driver fought his way onto the podium with a decisive pass on the main straight. Before the Safety Car intervention, he had also attempted to challenge Craigie for second, but the British driver held firm.
With third place, Sammalisto retains the championship lead ahead of Cosma-Cristofor, who crossed the finish line fourth.
Fifth place went to Jenzer Motorsport's Bader Al Sulaiti, one of the standout performers of Race 1 thanks to several exciting battles, first with Oscar Repetto (PHM Racing) and later with Sammalisto. The Monegasque PHM Racing driver finished sixth overall while also taking second place among the Rookies behind Craigie. Florentin Hattemer (Trident Motorsport) crossed the line seventh overall and completed the Rookie podium.
Alp Aksoy (Prema Racing) finished eighth after an entertaining wheel-to-wheel battle with teammate Christian Costoya for seventh place.
The McLaren Development Programme driver eventually took ninth.
Completing the top ten was Teo Borenstein (Jenzer Motorsport), ahead of Poland's Alex Ruta (Van Amersfoort Racing) and Australia's Noah Killion (US Racing). Augustus Toniolo (Trident Motorsport) finished 13th, followed by Prema Racing's Kwan Zheng. Edward Robinson (US Racing) claimed the final point in 15th.
There was no shortage of action further down the field either. R-ace GP's New Zealand-British driver Emily Cotty was involved in a collision with Oleksandr Savinkov (US Racing) while both were battling for a place inside the top 20. The incident also cost Cotty the lead in the Women's Trophy classification for Race 1, contested by three of the six female drivers entered this weekend. Victory in the category therefore went to Payton Westcott (R-ace GP), ahead of Rafaela Ferreira (Cram Motorsport).
Another Safety Car period was triggered late in the race after David Walther (Maffi Racing) came to a stop on track. Thanks to the quick work of the Mugello marshals, the race resumed for one final lap, producing an exciting fight among the top three without any changes to the podium positions.
The results remain provisional pending the completion of post-race sporting and technical checks.
The action continues later today, Saturday, July 25, with Race 2 for Groups A and B, scheduled to start at 17:10.
On Sunday, July 26, Group A and C will race at 09:00 before the Final, featuring the best 36 drivers of the weekend, gets underway at 15:50.
All races are contested over 25 minutes plus one lap, award full championship points to the top 15 finishers, and are broadcast live on ACI Sport TV, streamed on the official ACI Sport and Italian F4 Championship social media channels, as well as through the international broadcast network bringing Italian F4 to fans around the world.
Niccolò Maccagnani: "It was a really good race. We got a clean start and managed to get the lead. I had to defend on all the restarts, and I think it was a really good race for me. Thanks to the team for giving me the opportunity to fight at the front. It was quite tricky to lead the restart on the last lap, but in the end it all worked out well."