PREMA claims podium finish at Mugello
PREMA Racing had to deal with a challenging weekend as the 2024 Euro 4 Championship took off from Mugello Circuit with round 1 of a three-event series.
Overall, the team could not find the pace to bring home wins in Tuscany. Italian F4 Championship leader Freddie Slater brought home second place in Race 2 but was forced to settle for P5 and P10 in Race 1 and 3 respectively. Kean Nakamura-Berta ended up with a hefty score of two overall fourth-place finishes and a consistent pace. The Japanese-Slovakian also delivered a double rookie win.
Rashid Al Dhaheri came away from the weekend with two top-10s but also showcased impressive qualifying speed. A stall at the start of Race 3 prevented the Emirati from maximizing a remarkable front-row start, but the good single-lap form looks promising for the upcoming events. Dion Gowda made a valuable step, battling within the top-10 with positive runs. The Indian secured a sixth and a seventh place, working well within a competitve pack.
Tomass Stolcermanis and Alex Powell were also able to celebrate on the rookie podium. The Latvian posted two points finishes in the two races held on Sunday after an early contact in Race 1, and made solid steps as he improved to a P5 in Race 3. Powell had a tough run in general, securing a ninth place as his best result over the weekend.
The Euro 4 Championship will be back in mid-September at Red Bull Ring.
#14 - Rashid Al Dhaheri
"We did a good job in single-lap pace after learning a bit from the last time here at Mugello. Here it's always quite tricky with the temperatures, changing a lot from morning to afternoon. Getting the right balance for the race run is also difficult as tyre degradation is quite strong. The three races were tough, but we learned a lot from them. I now know how to adapt better to the conditions and we always learn from the hard times. We were able to improve quite a bit on the qualy side and learn from the race runs. We will see what we can do in Spielberg."
#27 - Freddie Slater
"If this is a bad weekend, I'll take it, but it hasn't been exactly what I wanted. We just struggled a little bit for pace overall. I made a few mistakes in qualifying which kind of cost us an even higher starting grid position, which would have made our life a bit easier. We will bounce back and see how the next one goes."
#33 - Tomass Stolcermanis
"Qualifying 1 was not our best, as me and the car didn't put the lap together. We changed something, also on the driver side, for qualifying 2, and it was much better. In Race 1, I made a big mistake and lost my front wing in turn 1. Then on Race 2, we had a really good pace but lost some time at the start, where we couldn't overtake and get to the front. After that, we overtook five cars to finish P7. In the last race, I got a good start and made some overtakes. I drove consistently and finished in P5, which I think is a great ending for the weekend."
#50 - Dion Gowda
"Decent weekend here in Mugello. We got some good points in all the races. Not where we fully want to be, but a good step forward from the previous events. We need to keep going and see what we can do at Red Bull Ring."
#51 - Kean Nakamura-Berta
"Overall we had a tough week as a team, I think we were lacking a bit of pace. We just took the points home. The podium was possible in Race 1, but you cannot risk the 50/50, you have to focus on the points. We'll work hard before Red Bull Ring, and hopefully, the overall pace will be better so we will be able to fight for victories."
#80 - Alex Powell
"It was another tough weekend and there is not really much to comment about it, it was difficult all around. We just have to keep our heads up and move to the next round to forget about this very quickly. Thanks to PREMA for the hard work, and I'm sure we'll come back stronger in Red Bull Ring."