Italian F.4 debuts with three new stars

Italian F.4 Championship powered by Abarth debuted at the weekend in Adria and showcased the talents of three new stars Lance Stroll (Prema Power Team), Ukyo Sasahara (Euronova Racing) and Andrea Russo (Diegi Motorsport). The three rookies were behind the wheel of the new Tatuus F4T014,

 Lance Stroll took double pole positions. In Race 1 he led team-mate Brandon Maisano from the grid and behind them, three drivers were battling for position, Andrea Russo (Diegi Motorsport) came out on top of this scrap leading Ukyo Sasahara (Euronova Racing) and Matteo

Cairoli (Antonelli Motorsport).

Due to race-1 top ten grid inversion for Race 2. Ukyo Sasahara (Euronova Racing) fended off attacks by Stroll who had managed to climbthe charts after the 5th row start and progressively close the gap to Sasahara as the latter got the lead from the third row of the grid.

Andrea Russo (Diegi Motorsport) and Leonardo Pulcini (Euronova Racing) gained some ground to the leading duo and involved themselves in anice battle for the podium. Sasahara kept his cool and held his rivals at bay as Stroll and Russo closed on the podium, while Pulcini ended fourth.

The final surprise arrived at the start of race-3, when poleman Stroll got away slowly giving way to an excellent Andrea Russo. The Milanese driver took the lead straight away pulling away from Maisano. Sasahara tried to bounce back to a good result, getting into the slipstream offered by Mattia Drudi (Adria Raceway by Cram) The strongest of the runners up turned out to be Pulciniwho got past all therivals ahead of him and finally got into Maisano's slipstream before taking him at the end of a red-hot but extremely well fought battle.

Sporting behaviour was shown by all the drivers Race-3. This is why the duel between Sasahara and the Swiss Alan Valente (Jenzer Motorsport)was an exciting string of attacks that lasted more than half of the race without cars getting too close to each other. The fourth place finally went Valente's way, who closed behind Russo, Pulcini and Maisano.

 Andrea Russo is the first leader of the Championship as he stands at 53 points, 2 clear of Lance Stroll. The third place is occupied by Leonardo Pulcini, who hauled 30 points thanks to his regular results, Ukyo Sasahara is currently 5 points behind him.

In the Italian F.4 Trophy powered by Abarth, restricted to over-19 yrs drivers, Brandon Maisano is leading the pack with 63 points andis followed by Keith Camilleri (Malta Formula Racing) and Ali Al Khalifa (Jenzer Motorsport).

The next round of the championship will take place in Imola 27 - 29 June.


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