Monza - In the last race of the second round of the Euro 4 Championship, victory finally came for the junior Red Bull driver of Prema Racing, Arvid Lindblad. In a race once again filled with complexity and numerous twists, the London-born driver emerged victorious. Following him on the podium, after an intense duel, was Italian driver Brando Badoer. Completing the final podium of the weekend was Akshay Bohra.
Race 3 was an exhilarating spectacle that concluded the Monza weekend with a bang. The first twist occurred right at the start, with pole-sitter Kacper Sztuka of US Racing, Saturday's race winner, stalling on the grid and later retiring following an incident with Alfio Spina of BVM Racing. Freddie Slater, making his debut for Prema, capitalized on this and took the lead from the front row. Another dramatic turn of events followed with the exits of James Wharton and Ugo Ugochukwu. In the midst of the battle for the top positions, the Australian experienced significant tire locking, causing him to slip on the track. This was followed by contact with his teammate at PREMA Racing, resulting in a Safety Car intervention. The battle for the lead was intense, with Slater and Lindblad swapping positions multiple times before they eventually made contact, leading to Slater's retirement. Italian driver Brando Badoer of Van Amersfoort Racing secured second place on the track, closing in on his rival in the final stages. Third place went to Akshay Bohra, representing US Racing, who had struggled throughout the weekend but managed to finish on a high note. Fourth place went to Zachary David, his teammate in Gerhard Ungar, and Ralf Schumacher's team, completing the Rookie podium. Sixth place was secured by Portuguese driver Ivan Domingues of Van Amersfoort Racing, followed by Prema's Emirati driver Rashid Al Dhaheri. The final race of the weekend was completed with eighth place going to Australian Gianmarco Pradel of US Racing. Rounding out the top 10 and Sicilian Alfio Spina of BVM Racing and Nicola Lacorte of PREMA Racing, after AKM Motorsport’s driver Enzo Deligny received a total of 10 seconds in 2 different penalties after the race for overtaking outside of the track limits.
Arvid Lindblad: “was a difficult race. I’m sure you can see that from the outside. I was lacking a bit of pace, probably I didn’t adapt to the balance perfectly, I struggled quite a bit. I had to use all the skills in my armory today to get the victory. I tried to be smart, use the tow, and use the others where I could. I tried to go in the lead, but I just didn’t have the pace to stay there. I tried to manage the race as best as I could, and I think I did a good job. I’m really happy with the result, especially after the difficult weekend at Mugello, and also to bounce back after the summer break in a good way, I’m really happy about that. Huge thanks to everyone at Prema, my engineer Vincenzo, and mechanics Mauro and Laura”
Brando Badoer: "It was a highly competitive race, and I'm very pleased with how I approached it. I don't think I made any mistakes and I made the most of the opportunities I had. With the strategy we chose, I had tires that were quite worn for this race, but I'm happy with the car; it was well-balanced. I'd like to thank my sponsors, the entire team, and my family. I'm thrilled to wrap up the weekend with this podium."
Akshay Bohra: “Definitely a difficult race. In the start, I jumped to second. After I was having quite a few fights the Badoer and the other Premas. In the end we salvaged our weekend. It was a nice way to finish off the weekend, after some difficulties in the previous races.”
The standings still have Ugo Ugochukwu leading after the weekend with 80 points in total, but now Arvid Lindblad is dangerously close, trailing by just 3 points. The championship standings are “subindices” until the resolution of Race 2, the results of which are frozen and will be referred to the Federation.
The next round will take place in Barcelona from October 20th to 22nd and will mark the grand finale of the Euro 4 Championship. The third and final round of the championship will have a coefficient of 2.