Italian F4: Freddie Slater is almost there, but Hiyu Yamakoshi keeps the title fight alive with a spectacular overtake in Race 1
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya - In Barcelona, during the first of the 3 races in the penultimate round of the Italian F.4 Championship, Freddie Slater from Prema Racing claimed his twelfth win of the season, coming within a hair’s breadth of securing the title. With US Racing’s Akshay Bohra stalling on pole at the start, the only driver to keep the fight alive until Sunday was Hiyu Yamakoshi from Van Amersfoort Racing. The Japanese driver finished third behind Jack Beeton, starting from sixth place, thanks to a fabulous restart after the safety car. Had he finished even in fourth, the championship standings would have been sealed in favor of the Englishman. The situation now looks more than promising for Freddie Slater, with 2 pole positions awaiting him in tomorrow’s races and only 3 points separating him from a mathematical confirmation of the championship win.
The first twist of the day came at the start of the race when the Indian-American driver from US Racing stalled on the first row of the grid, allowing the entire field to pass, with Freddie Slater taking P1, followed by Jack Beeton. In the first chicane, there was contact between AKM Motorsport’s Italian driver Emanuele Olivieri and Prema Racing’s Latvian driver Tomass Stolcermanis. The incident caused both to retire, leading to the safety car being deployed. At the restart, Hiyu Yamakoshi seized his chance, advancing from sixth to third, pulling off a final spectacular overtake on Alpine Academy driver Kabir Anurag in Turn 1. Anurag, the Singaporean driver for US Racing, had been very fast throughout the weekend and had previously defended his position against the assaults from Van Amersfoort Racing’s Yamakoshi and Gustav Jonsson, but was eventually passed and finished sixth. Swedish driver Gustav Jonsson crossed the finish line in fourth place but was penalized with a 10-second time penalty by the Stewards Panel for a jump start, dropping him out of the points. This promoted Mercedes junior driver Alex Powell, representing Prema Racing, to fourth place, having shown strong performance in a very positive weekend. The American-Jamaican driver thus finished Race 1 in fourth place, while also claiming victory in the Rookie class, earning 25 points that strengthened his position at the top of the rookie standings.
Fifth position and second on the Rookie podium went to US Racing’s fast German driver Maxim Rehm, ahead of Anurag, who was the third-best Rookie in Race 1. Indian Prema Racing driver Dion Gowda finished seventh in the race. Gowda engaged in a tough battle with teammate Kean Nakamura-Berta, with contact between the two cars resulting in the Japanese Alpine Academy driver dropping out of the points battle. Eighth place went to PHM AIX Racing’s Maksimilian Popov, followed on track by US Racing’s Gianmarco Pradel. The last point in Race 1 was ultimately claimed by Prema Racing’s Rashid Al Dhaheri.
Forced to retire from Race 1 were Indian driver Kai Daryanani (Cram Motorsport), Luka Sammalisto (R-ace GP), and Edward Robinson (US Racing). Daryanani was involved in an incident with American Everett Stack (PHM AIX Racing), who received a drive-through penalty converted into a 25-second time penalty for the episode. In a very tough race within the midfield pack, with contacts between several drivers in the rear, there were two further race neutralizations, both of which were handled smoothly by race leader Freddie Slater upon restart. Among these was the incident between Enea Frey (Jenzer Motorsport) and Andrija Kostic (Van Amersfoort Racing), which resulted in the Swiss driver receiving a penalty of two positions lost on the grid for the next race.
Now, Race 2 awaits, where all the ideal conditions are set for the British driver to wrap up the title early, starting from the first of the two pole positions of the weekend and needing only 3 points to secure the championship. Continuing his streak of successes would also see Slater tie, and having chances to further improving, the record for the Italian F.4 Championship, currently held by Andrea Kimi Antonelli with 13 victories in the 2022 season.
Race 2 and Race 3 will take place tomorrow, Sunday, September 29, at 11:10 and 17:10, respectively. The three races of the weekend, each lasting 30 minutes plus 1 lap, will be broadcast live on the Italian F.4 Championship’s YouTube and Facebook channels, on ACI Sport TV (channel 228 on Sky, channel 52 on Tivù Sat, and streaming on www.acisport.it), as well as on the various channels and platforms of the Italian F.4 Championship’s extensive international network, including DAZN.
Freddie Slater: “We got to keep building on the wins, there is a record to be beaten as well, and I really want to set the new record to break. A very good start today, and got to wait until tomorrow to see if we can get this wrapped up. Honestly, it has been a great weekend, Prema has done an amazing job, in changing conditions hot/cold. Great race, a lot of pressure from behind with the safety car restarts, but we managed it well. With the safety car, it's super difficult to be the leader, it gives more chances to the people behind. Unluckily Bohra stalled at the start, which is a shame for him, I would say I don’t wish it upon anybody, but you got to take the pieces when you can. I had a mega start, a good first lap, and then controlled the race from there.”
Jack Beeton: “It’s good to be back, fast again. We had struggled in Red Bull Ring two weeks ago and didn’t score any points in the Euro 4 race. It’s good to be back, fast again in Barcelona here, I really enjoy driving on this track. I’m happy to be finally quick again. Race 2 and 3 tomorrow, I’m starting P2 in both. The pace was good in this last one, is just very hard to overtake. I’m looking to try and get a good start, hopefully, pass Slater on the start, and see what we can do from there, otherwise, just manage the tires and see when we can get him during the race.”
Hiyu Yamakoshi: “The Championship is almost finished, but my target is to try to take it to the last round. It’s quite difficult, I don’t know what happened this morning in Q1, I finished in P6, but Q2 was quite nice and I got the second row. Today I did quite a good race and I had a good pace with old tires, so I think I have a good chances to win tomorrow. My last overtaking move to Kabir, I watched Formula 1 and I think Sebastian Vettel did it in Turn 1. Vettel can, that’s meant it’s possible and I can too, I had the grip so I tried, and it worked.”
Alex Powell: “It was a super strong race, considering how the qualifying went this morning, which was not really ideal. It was super good to bounce back, in general, it was a super positive race, with good moves and more importantly, good race pace. Solid to start the weekend like this, I’m really happy with the first race. Of course, we still noticed some improvements to do, we’ll look into it again, but definitely a strong start, something to build on for the weekend. Of course, I want to be top overall, but it’s good to be the top Rookie. As long as we just focusing on ourselves, and getting those consistent results, I hope it will come to us. I’m looking for the overall results, but it’s positive to be top of the rookies.”