British driver Freddie Slater, representing Prema Racing, also had a great start from P3, managing to move up to second coming out of Turn 1 and holding the position throughout the race. The other positions in the top 10 were marked by intense battles, especially during the first five laps, in a race that proved to be highly exciting and full of surprises. In the end, the third step of the Race 2 podium was occupied by Swedish driver Gustav Jonsson, who matched his P3 from Race 1. Jonsson started from the seventh row of the grid and climbed up through the field, engaging in intense duels, particularly with Japanese driver Kean Nakamura-Berta and German driver Maxim Rehm. Jonsson is currently second in the standings with 30 points.
In fourth place was Australian driver Jack Beeton, representing US Racing, who was third for part of the race and one of the main protagonists in the on-track battles, starting from fifth position. Following him at the checkered flag was his compatriot and teammate Gianmarco Pradel, who put on a spectacular show with a long climb from the 13th grid position. Maxim Rehm, also representing US Racing, finished in P6, securing the Rookie class win with this result. Following him, both on track and on the Rookie podium for Race 2, was Prema Racing’s Latvian driver Tomass Stolcermanis. Pole-sitter Akshay Bohra finished the race in eighth place, in a frantic event that highlighted the importance of tire management throughout the weekend.
Ninth place went to the local driver from Tuscany, Davide Larini, representing PHM AIX Racing. It has been a season of growth for the Italian driver, who was rewarded for his strong qualifying work with some thrilling overtakes. The last point up for grabs was taken by Rashid Al Dhaheri from Prema Racing, who initially fought for the leading positions but fell back due to a drop in pace.
Right behind him, just outside the points, was Alpine Academy’s Prema Racing driver Kean Nakamura-Berta and PHM AIX Racing’s debutant Gabriel Gomez. The Brazilian driver gave an excellent performance in his first experience in a highly competitive environment like the Euro 4 Championship, immediately making an impression with a well-executed Race 2.
The only retirement of the race was for Mercedes Junior driver Alex Powell (Prema Racing), who pulled off onto the grass at San Donato.
Now, the thrilling conclusion of the first round of the Euro 4 Championship awaits. Race 3 will start at 16:00 at the Mugello Circuit, lasting 30 minutes plus one lap.
All the action will be broadcast live on the Euro 4 Championship’s YouTube and Facebook channels, as well as on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228, Tivù Sat channel 52, and streaming on www.acisport.it). Additionally, coverage will be extended to a vast network of international broadcasters, including the DAZN platform, ensuring global visibility for a championship that is increasingly significant in the landscape of junior racing series.
Hiyu Yamakoshi: “amazing race. I was fast, I thank so much Van Amersfoort Racing and my mechanics and engineer. It was a risky move into T1, but I did it. I took perfect turn 1, and get the P1, then just a few laps pushing and I made a big gap and managed everything. It was a perfect race.”
Freddie Slater: “I just got a mega start, not even the start itself, I was on the back into T1, then it was a bit chaotic because Yamakoshi locked up. I had to put the car in the right place to avoid to lose my front wing, crashes etc., we cannot afford that. It was a clean race, there was a lot going on, I’m sure the highlights would be quite good! It was enjoyable, we go again to race for it later. It’s been difficult, we were lacking a little bit of pace, not every weekend is going the way you wanted it, if I’m still going away with P2 and P5, it’s a pretty good “bad” weekend for me!”
Gustav Jonsson: “I started P7, an ok start. Then Berta and Rehm were very racy let’s say. We were three wide a couple of time, and after that it was quite wide to overtake. I never got really the option to overtake into T1, so it was quite tough. I got pass them, then it was just lap by lap getting better, kept pushing and after a while my right front tire was a bit gone and I couldn’t really do so much. When I caught up to Slater, he was also good at defending in the last corner, I tried on the last lap, but it was impossible to overtake. I’m still happy with P3 from P7, for sure. We know the speed is there. We have one more race, unfortunately at the back, but hopefully we can do a good a race.”
Maxim Rehm: “in the start, because everyone was kind of equal in the beginning, it was really a big fight in the first five laps…really was a chaos to be honest! Then you quickly could see who had fresher tires, who saved the tires better in the race before, so it kind of separated again. Through the end of the race, I just tried to save as much of the tires as possible. Everyone had a big gap, it was kind of easy to just finish the race, the most important thing was just saving the tires for the next race.”
Tomass Stolcermanis: “Race 2 was a lot of fighting. My start was definitely not the best, I lost some positions over there. I had the speed, good tires for Race 2, so I was quick to catch others and overtake.”