At the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Freddie Slater continues to rack up victories, feeding his absolute record in the Italian F.4 Championship. With his second victory of the weekend, the British driver from Prema Racing now reaches a total of 15 wins. This time, the battle on track was very intense, with an exchange of overtakings for the lead with Japan's Kean Nakamura-Berta, who eventually finished second on the podium, winning the Rookie class race. Jack Beeton took third place, with the Australian driver from the US Racing team now fully involved in the fight for P2 in the Championship, still held by Van Amersfoort's Japanese driver Hiyu Yamakoshi.
Improved track conditions allowed for a standing start, though the track remained very slippery, complicating strategies for selecting the right Pirelli tires. Most teams, seeing rain on the radar, opted for wet tires, but some took a gamble on slicks, which did not pay off in the long run. At the start, Slater was immediately challenged, but managed to hold onto P1, while in the back, an incident at the first chicane involved Andrei Duna (Real Racing), Kai Daryanani (CRAM Motorsport), and Jan Koller (BVM Motorsport), bringing out the safety car. The Stewards’ Panel later penalized Duna for the incident with a 10-place grid drop for the next race. On the restart, Nakamura-Berta and Jack Beeton attacked the leader from both sides, with the Japanese driver from Prema taking the lead. Beeton also managed to pass Slater for second, leaving the British driver under heavy pressure from Gianmarco Pradel of US Racing in P4. Another safety car intervention was needed after an incident between Davide Larini of PHM AIX Racing and Bianca Bustamante of ART Grand Prix, which sent the Filipino driver into the gravel at the Parabolica. Bustamante received a 4-place grid penalty for the next race due to the incident.
It was then Kean Nakamura-Berta's turn to lead the restart, but shortly after, Pradel spun and was hit by the two Ukrainian drivers, Oleksander Savinkov of AKM Motorsport and Oleksander Bondarev of Prema Racing, resulting in the retirement of all three. Before the standings were neutralized again, Slater managed to retake P1. Due to the track’s high slipperiness, the decisive overtake by the 2024 Italian F.4 Champion happened with a wheel-to-wheel contact with Nakamura-Berta, though both drivers managed to avoid losing ground. After an expertly managed final restart by Slater, the race ended under safety car conditions after Bart Harrison of Jenzer Motorsport went off into the gravel exiting the Ascari chicane.
At the end, the final order saw Slater ahead, followed by Nakamura-Berta and Beeton completing the podium. Indian driver Akshay Bohra took fourth position thanks to an excellent race interpretation that also saw him set the fastest lap.
In fifth and sixth positions were the two drivers who completed the Rookie podium: Edward Robinson of US Racing and Tomass Stolcermanis of Prema Racing. Making his debut weekend with his first points was karting world champion Kirill Kutskov, representing Maffi Racing, who finished seventh. Eighth position went to Luka Sammalisto, the Finnish driver from R-ace GP who will start on the front row in race 3. Maksimilian Popov, representing PHM AIX Racing, took ninth, while Rookie class leader Alex Powell, Mercedes junior driver from Prema Racing, grabbed the last point available. Italian driver Emanuele Olivieri of AKM Motorsport was penalized with 25 seconds as his team performed work on his car on the grid, beyond the allowed time limit. He had started from P5 and maintained his position in the race.
To honor the last weekend of the Italian F4 Championship, 2023 season champion Kacper Sztuka from Poland also made an appearance on the grid for Race 2, sharing his experience in Formula 3 and wishing the drivers good luck, with a special shout-out to the US Racing team, with whom he triumphed last year.
The last race of the year is tomorrow, Sunday, October 27, at 10.25
Freddie Slater: “It was a difficult race, the tow was worth so much, which I was a little bit surprised about, because obviously in the wet weather conditions it’s not so meaningful. In the race, where the track was a little bit drier, it definitely helped us and made the race nice and close. Good fun, T1 got a bit tasty a few times. Good battle with all the drivers out there, the top 10 were always close. We had a good battle me, Kean, Jack and Gianmarco. People were going for the slicks, and I was contemplating that. The reason why we didn’t is because the way the races are falling, with the safety cars. Also, the track wasn’t quite as good as it was in Q1 yesterday, when we were able to put on the slick tires. I was using all my knowledge from other races, other practice sessions, to make the call when I see with my engineer Vincent to put the best result together, to give myself the best opportunity to win the race.”
Kean Nakamura-Berta: “conditions were quite similar to Paul Ricard, but a little bit different. This time most of us went wet, including me. We were quite stronger at the start of the race, when it was a bit drier, I got into lead early on. We couldn’t really get away, it kind of sort went back to normal cliché Monza, with the slipstream. We had quite a few safety cars. I did quite a decent job for the first half of the race, then one mistake in the second half cost me a possible win. Still a good result, having two podiums out of two races. I’m little more disappointed with this one, Race 1 I think was a better performance by me, but a P2 is a P2. I’m here aiming for the Rookie Championship, and is still good points for the Rookie. We’ll see how I do tomorrow, starting P7. It’s a bit further back, but [in Race 1] I finished P3 from P8, so I could still do a pretty decent job there. We remembered how Paul Ricard was, but there were also other factors in Paul Ricard. In Monza, with so many safety cars, it’s always a risk, and it’s even bigger of risk compared to back in France. We just went with the safe option.”
Jack Beeton: “conditions are very difficult, it was on the edge of slicks or wets. Especially at the start, before the rain hit in the middle of the race. We were contemplating slicks, in the end we stayed on wets, which ended up to be the right decision. It was a good fun race, with all the drivers at the front, Slater, Nakamura and my teammate Gianmarco, we had a good race. I’m a bit sad to come away third, I think at times we had definitely the fastest car on track. It was a fun race, and P3 is what we came away with. We will take it lap by lap, and see what we come out at the end of the race. I’ll focus on myself, try and do the best result I can.”