PREMA Racing experienced a successful weekend at Mugello, exiting the second round of the E4 Championship with the series lead in all classes.
Kean Nakamura and Sebastian Wheldon delivered one win to underline a high-profile performance for the team. The Japanese-Slovakian driver was the class of the field since free practice and qualifying, leading all sessions and capturing two pole positions. Nakamura-Berta delivered a perfect Race 1, leading from start to finish, and continued with the same pace in Race 2, when a 5-second penalty for a track violation dropped him to P2. He rounded out the weekend with P4, cruising to the lead of the driver championship.
Wheldon delivered a masterful performance in Race 3 with an incredible move from third place to the lead, which he then never relinquished. The American completed a solid run with two additional points finishes.
Salim Hanna posted three impressive runs too, bringing home two top-5 results overall and a triple rookie win. Despite facing some troubled runs, teammate Oleksandr Bondarev has held onto the Rookie Championship lead. Newman Chi posted two points finishes in P10, while Andrea Dupe experienced an ever-improving weekend. The Frenchman secured a best qualifying result of P9, and looked set for an impressive result when he was crashed out of Race 3.
The double win handed PREMA Racing a solid lead in the Team Championship. The team will soon be back on track for the penultimate round of the Italian F4 Championship at Barcelona.
#5 - ANDREA DUPE
"Difficult weekend. I struggled with pace and balance, but I think we made a good step. We also struggled with tyre wear, but we were doing quite well in the last race before getting taken out. There is work to be done for Barcelona in terms of balance and pace on new tyres, but we'll be fine if we fix this."
#27 - OLEKSANDR BONDAREV
"Quite a difficult weekend. We knew it was going to be hard with the deg, and since qualifying, we didn't really have the pace. We tried really hard with the team to find it, but in the end, it was just not our weekend. Not much more to say, we have Barcelona next weekend, we think for sure we can be quick there and show our good form there."
#28 - ZHENRUI CHI
"Practice wasn't bad, and we gathered good information. In qualifying, the balance was fine, but we went out of the pits in the wrong sequence, which cost us a lot of time. In Race 1 we didn't get the balance right, and I couldn't keep a good pace. It ended with a crash. The first three laps of Race 2 were quite good, but we got too much front deg, while in Race 3 we had the best balance, but unfortunately we had four old tyres and it was hard to gain more positions."
#51 - KEAN NAKAMURA-BERTA
"A decent weekend, better than when we were here last time around in Italian F4. It was promising from the beginning. The performance was mega, we were P1 in both free practices, and in the qualifying sessions, with P2 with the second fastest lap for Race 3. In Race 1, we executed a perfect, clean, and controlled race, and in Race 2, we also did a really good job. Maybe we weren't the fastest car on track, but we controlled it nicely. We got a penalty afterwards for a situation that I think was 50/50, but we still finished second with good points. In race 3, we didn't have the pace; it was quite weird, but we shouldn't think too much about it. We'll just look at what happened. We made a few changes that could have affected that. Overall, a good weekend; we have taken the lead of the championship by 10 points, having gained 27 points over our closest competitor. It's all for play in Monza, and it's great to be in front going into it."
#88 - SALIM HANNA
"It was a good weekend, as we had the pace since Imola, and the car feels great. In Qualifying, it was more on my side that I didn't put the lap together. Race 1 was pretty good as we gained two positions, finishing fourth. I ended up fourth in Race 2, and we could have done better, while in Race 3, we got P6 on old tyres, which wasn't bad. Overall, the car is really good, and I have a great feeling about the next races."
#98 - SEBASTIAN WHELDON
"A very good weekend besides the first two races. Qualifying wasn't ideal; we were just trying to find a good balance, but we came back in Race 3, where I think I drove quite well. I want to thank my engineer, Philippe, for the great tyre strategy and car balance. I can't thank him and everyone at PREMA enough."