Teo Borenstein had led the race from pole position up to that point. The Czech driver of Jenzer Motorsport was unable to pull clear of his rivals, however, and started the final lap with just a few tenths of a second in hand over second place. He was eventually caught by US Racing’s Ary Bansal.
Costoya, who had been running third, took advantage of the situation to go around the outside of both drivers, while US Racing’s Edward Robinson had also closed in behind them. The three drivers were then involved in an incident in the closing stages, leaving the way clear for the papaya-liveried driver to claim his first victory.
British driver Kenzo Craigie finished second, returning to the podium after an extremely strong second half of the season. The Mercedes junior, racing for R-ace GP, did a great job of capitalising on his rivals’ mistakes following an excellent start.
Elia Weiss completed the podium in third. The German Jenzer Motorsport driver brought the celebrations back to the Jenzer camp after Borenstein’s chances of victory disappeared following the incident.
Alp Aksoy of Prema Racing continued his run of consistency in fourth, once again finishing inside the points. The Turkish driver also completed the Rookie podium behind Costoya and Craigie.
Brazilian driver Augustus Toniolo of Trident Motorsport finished fifth, having been involved in an intense battle with Craigie during the opening part of the race. Australian driver Noah Killion was sixth, ahead of Robinson, who managed to rejoin the race after the incident and eventually crossed the line in seventh.
Alex Ruta finished eighth ahead of Dean Pedersen. Prema Racing’s Romanian driver David Cosma-Cristofor was tenth and, together with Aksoy, remains in contention for the championship title, while championship leader Sammalisto is now just a handful of points away from mathematically securing the crown.
ACI Team Italia driver Iacopo Martinese, representing PHM Racing, scored another points finish in eleventh. He was followed by Prema Racing’s Chinese driver Kwan Ho Kingsley Zheng. Jenzer Motorsport’s Nicolas Cortes, US Racing’s German driver Arjen Kraling and Mercedes junior Andy Consani of R-ace GP completed the points-scoring positions.
Emma Felbermayr of PHM Racing won the women’s classification, taking the class podium ahead of Payton Westcott of R-ace GP and Rafaela Ferreira of CRAM Motorsport.
Christian Costoya: “The key in this race was consistency and tyre management. You could see that towards the end they were struggling a bit more. On the last lap, we tried the move around the outside and unfortunately they crashed on the inside. I think we deserved this win for the amazing job the team is doing. Let’s keep it up.”
Kenzo Craigie: “It was a good race. We were quite unlucky this morning with a mechanical failure on our car. To bounce back like this is really good. We just kept moving forward lap by lap and, on the last lap, the leaders collided. I picked my way through and ended up second. It’s a good result, I’m really happy.”
Elia Weiss: “It was a bit lucky for sure. I saw the car in front of me going off. I think in this race it was all about trying to defend and hold the position. Sometimes you need to be lucky as well, but I think we deserved P3 today.”
The results remain provisional pending the completion of technical and sporting checks.
On Sunday, 20 September, Race 3, featuring Groups A and C, will take place at 10:10 AM and will be the final qualifying race. Based on the results, the top 36 drivers will qualify for the final, scheduled for 4:20 PM.
All races will run for 25 minutes plus one lap and will be broadcast live on the official Italian F4 Championship and ACI Sport TV channels, as well as across the international network of broadcasters covering the championship worldwide.