PREMA Racing had a solid weekend at Mugello, ticking off round 4 of the Italian Formula 4 Championship. In a tricky weekend at the Tuscan venue, the team maximized the performance, claiming one win and two podium finishes overall.
Kean Nakamura-Berta went from pole to a safe win in Race 1, and secured P3 at the end of Race 3 to extend his overall championship lead and make the most out of the challenging weekend. On the other hand, a tough qualifying impacted the efforts of current runner-up Sebastian Wheldon, who ended up with two points finishes, including a fourth place.
Coming from his first win at Monza, Newman Chi delivered another podium overall with a great second-place finish in Race 2 and a solid overall effort. The Chinese racer wrapped up the weekend with two additional points finishes to make a great jump in the rookie championship, where he's now trailing teammate Salim Hanna.
The quick Colombian didn't have the easiest weekend, but was still able to improve step by step to finish off with a points finish overall and a rookie win. Oleksandr Bondarev also took a rookie win, showing high potential as the weekend progressed.
Andrea Dupé made his first start with the team in Race 1, but the Frenchman was suffering from flu-like symptoms. After having to retire in Race 1, he sat out the rest of the weekend to speed up the recovery ahead of the E4 Championship opener at Circuit Paul Ricard.
#27 OLEKSANDR BONDAREV
"Had another challenging weekend. Qualifying was a bit more consistent this time, which was positive. Race 1 was positive as well, with P8 and a rookie win. I was happy with that. In Race 2, we struggled a lot with tyres, but we turned it around for Race 3. The cart felt better, but I just made a driving error at the moment when I was under the most pressure. Apologies to the team for that. They worked really hard overnight to get the car better for this morning, but I threw it away. We'll regroup and be back for Paul Ricard this week."
#28 ZHENRUI CHI
"We struggled a bit in free practice and qualifying. In the first qualifying, I really didn't put the lap together, while in the second, I got a good one, but the tyres were finished. I think I did the maximum I could in Race 1, as this track is very hard to overtake and I couldn't do anything. Race 2 was quite fine; we could have tried to attack more at the start to overtake Powell. At the end, it wasn't too bad. In Race 3, the start was good, but it was a bit of a mess, and I couldn't overtake with a car moving under braking. Later, I found a lapped car in the middle of the track, which made me lose one position."
#51 KEAN NAKAMURA-BERTA
"Overall, it was a positive weekend, championship-wise. We weren't super confident coming into it, but we showed a really good pace in qualifying. We got pole for Race 1, and it could have been a triple, but a mistake caused me to lose it over a track limits infraction. Race 1 was really well managed by the whole team, my engineer and I, working to maintain the tyres, and two re-starts kept us under pressure. We started P9 in Race 2. We just had to get some points, and we did a decent job finishing in P6. It's so difficult to overtake. In Race 3, a bit of rain before the race started. It was a bit of chaos at the start. We lacked a bit of pace, but it was not bad for the championship. We've got a bit of work to do in terms of long run pace on high-deg circuits. We'll get there. Big thanks to PREMA for putting up a mega effort."
#88 SALIM HANNA
"Not the weekend we expected or wanted. We never really had pace. We just struggled in every session, went out to fix the issue, but we just couldn't. Qualifying 1, while everything was running good, maybe my driving could have been a bit better, while in Qualifying 2, I did my real best. In Race 1, the start was not good, and I lost three positions, and the race stayed like that for the race. Race 2, we were on old tyres and just tried to survive. In Race 3, I did the best I could, but we didn't have the pace. I think we have a lot of margin and we need to work on that for the next races."
#98 SEBASTAN WHELDON
"We were really strong in Free Practice, with P1 in both sessions. In qualifying, we struggled a little bit, and then we kind of set the tone for the whole weekend, as we struggled with car balance throughout the races. I was just trying to maximize what I could."