Freddie Slater doubled up in the evening with a second victory at Mugello, in the fourth round of the Italian F.4 Championship. This time Slater started from pole, as he will in tomorrow's final race, and maintained the lead from start to finish. It marked his ninth win in the Italian Championship, his sixth consecutive, in what is the most positive moment for the Stratford-Upon-Avon driver. For Prema Racing's star, it wasn't all easy in a highly contested race that also saw him deal with two restarts behind the safety car.
Rashid Al Dhaheri, Prema Racing Emirati driver, challenged his leadership right from the start, repeatedly closing the gap to Slater. Al Dhaheri showed exceptional pace, also setting the fastest lap in Race 2. However, on the restart from the second safety car, he was overtaken by Gustav Jonsson, who was in third place after passing Bohra. The Van Amersfoort Racing Swede slightly overextended his exit maneuver, leaving Bohra an opening, who then took P2 and held it. Akshay Bohra thus finished second, ending the race within less than three-tenths of the winner. The unstoppable Al Dhaheri regained third position from Jonsson in the final stages and therefore celebrated on third step of the podium.
Jonsson finished fourth, ahead of teammate Hiyu Yamakoshi. The Japanese driver started again in fourth grid position, as in the morning race, and conducted a precise race without excessive risks. He lost his position only on the restart from the first safety car, in one of the most intense phases. In sixth position, junior Mercedes driver Alex Powell of Prema Racing again won the Rookie classification, making it a double and consolidating his regained top position in the class dedicated to debuting drivers. The remaining points positions were fiercely contested: Swiss Jenzer Motorsport driver Ethan Ischer crossed the line in seventh, followed by Australian Gianmarco Pradel of US Racing.
Ninth and second on the Rookie podium was Tomass Stolcermanis, who had to defend his position multiple times and exchange overtakes to stay within the top 10. Again finishing tenth, as in Race 1, was Brazilian US Racing driver Matheus Ferreira. Andrija Kostic, the Serbian Van Amersfoort Racing driver, received a 5-second penalty for dangerous conduct on track during a battle with Maksimilian Popov of PHM AIX Racing, conceding as a result the third Rookie podium spot to Popov.
Penalties were also given to Davide Larini, the PHM AIX Racing Tuscan driver, in a difficult race that saw him forced to pit twice. Larini received a two-position grid drop for the next race due to an incident with Maxim Rhem (US Racing). Oleksandr Savinkov (AKM Motorsport) lost six positions for an incident with Wiktor Dobrzanski (AS Motorsport) in a tough head-to-head that had already occurred in the morning race. Time penalties were given to Andrej Petrovic (PHM AIX Racing), with five seconds for overtaking under the safety car, and a drive-through converted to 25 seconds to Emanuele Olivieri (AKM Motorsport) following his incident with Enea Frey (Jenzer Motorsport).
Increasing his lead, Freddie Slater looks unstoppable on the Tuscan track, gaining 50 points on the first race day and bringing his total to 215, 66 points ahead of the second. With 149 points, Hiyu Yamakoshi remains the closest pursuer, while the third position changed, with Akshay Bohra rising to 126, surpassing Alex Powell at 120.
Freddie Slater: "safety car rules make everything difficult, but we have to manage that. We make it work. Restart was the key today; that's the reason I won because I got the restart right. Good day overall; we go again tomorrow!"
Akshay Bohra: "another podium, but definitely a lot more pleased with how we achieved this one. I had two really good restarts, in one I took advantage of other drivers racing and made a position. I’m very happy with this race, versus the race this morning. I just had to trust myself a bit more and be more in sync."
Rashid Al Dhaheri: "the race was quite interesting. Many battles, we were very close, a lot of stretching. The Mugello track is beautiful, for me it's spectacular. Even if you're alone, you can never relax; it's very nice. We had a great battle today; let's see how we can continue this trend tomorrow."
The next appointment is tomorrow, Sunday, July 14. The final race of the fourth round of the Italian F.4 Championship at Mugello Circuit, also 30 minutes + 1 lap, will start at 11:20.
The weekend races are broadcast live on the Italian F.4 Championship YouTube and Facebook channels, on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228, Tivù Sat channel 52, and streaming on www.acisport.it), as well as on the extensive network of international television channels broadcasting the Italian F4 Championship 2024, including the DAZN platform.
Fans are invited to follow their favorite drivers up close and enjoy an exciting motorsport weekend at Mugello Circuit. Tickets for the event are available on the Ticketone platform at the following address: https://www.ticketone.it/artist/aci-racing-weekend/