PREMA Racing delivered a scintillating run as the Italian Formula 4 Championship went underway for its season opener at Misano World Circuit. The event saw a record pack split in three heat races which led into a final, and the team posted dominant wins in all of them.
Kean Nakamura-Berta was the major star of the weekend, taking pole position in his group and delivering two outstanding wins in his heats. Then, starting from the overall pole in the final, the Japanese-Slovakian steadily drove away from the pack to achieve his third with a substantial margin and a flawless pace.
Sebastian Wheldon also achieved a win by taking the lead of heat 1 early and added one more podium before rounding out the top-5 in the final. The British-American racer showed consistent pace to secure his first European win in style. He now trails Nakamura-Berta in overall points.
Topping his group qualifying and starting from pole in race 1, Salim Hanna delivered two podiums, underlining a solid improvement. The Colombian rookie swept a triple class win in a decidedly positive season start.
Tomass Stolcermanis and Newman Chi posted three points finishes each, with the Chinese driver climbing up three times on the rookie podium, and the Latvian maximizing some hard-fought runs. Contact hampered Oleksandr Bondarev in Race 1, but the Ukranian eventually bounced back to P6 in his second heat, race 3. Chi and Bondarev are rounding out the top-10 in points, while the former sits P2 in the rookie standings.
#27 - Oleksandr Bondarev
"Challenging weekend, qualifying wasn't great. We had a lot more pace in practice, and around a track as tight as this, it's really really difficult to overtake. We struggled a bit in the races. In the first I made a mistake which cost me a really good finish, while the other two races were nothing special as I got stuck behind the same driver all the time. I'll learn my lessons and come back stronger for Vallelunga."
#28 - Newman Chi
"A tough weekend in Misano. The start was not too bad in Race 1, but otherwise we always struggled off the line. Still, we had quite a good pace at the end. For the next round, we will have to work on the starts to put it all together."
#33 - Tomass Stolcermanis
"We struggled a bit in practice and we didn't go into qualifying with a lot of confidence because we were quite far off from the lead. In qualy we managed to put a good car and driving together, and take P3 in group and P5 overall, which was pretty solid. I had an issue at the start of Race 1 and dropped several positions, but we gained them back. In Race 2 we went from P4 to P3, but in the end I picked up a penalty. We started P7 in the final and gained two positions with a mega start, but a driver squeezed me off and we collided. I fought back and the second half was okay, we had good speed and made some nice overtakes. It was not our weekend but keep working hard."
#51 - Kean Nakamura-Berta
"I cannot be happier to be honest. What an incredible job by the whole team. PREMA gave me a rocketship all weekend and I can't thank them enough. We proved that in qualifying and in the races as well. The final race was unbelievable, and the pace we showed was amazing, with more than four seconds to P2. Let's try to keep this momentum going for the coming rounds."
#88 - Salim Hanna
"A good weekend overall. We were quite far in winter testing, but we managed to work bit by bit, test by test, getting closer to my reference, working harder and harder every day. We managed to reduce the gap and we are now one tenth off or even equal, and really consistent. I improved my starts, and many things, and taking P2 in race 1, and a podium in the final feels great".
#98 - Sebastian Wheldon
"The beginning of the weekend went really well with P1 and P2 in the first couple of races, while I'm a little disapointed about the final one and we have to see what went wrong. It's a good start, let's keep moving forward and improving for Valencia."