The second and penultimate race of the E4 Championship season, held this morning at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, brought Kean Nakamura-Berta (Prema Racing) within touching distance of the title. The Japanese-Slovak driver, starting from pole position, secured a decisive victory that moves him just one point away from the mathematical confirmation of the championship promoted by ACI Sport and WSK Promotion, which runs across three rounds.
With this success, Nakamura-Berta would have already sealed the title, if not for the excellent performance of his closest rival Gabriel Gomez (US Racing), who staged a remarkable recovery from the sixth row on the grid to finish second. The Brazilian driver kept the championship battle alive, fighting until the very last laps in a race marked by two safety car interventions following incidents in the midfield.
Third place went to Reno Francot (PHM Racing), who managed to clinch the final podium spot in the closing stages, overtaking Sebastian Wheldon (Prema Racing), fourth at the flag after running in contention for second place for much of the race.
Zenrui Chi (Prema Racing) finished fifth and claimed victory in the Rookie class. The Chinese driver had climbed as high as second before dropping back in the closing laps amid the intense battles within the leading group. Andrija Kostic (US Racing) finished sixth, ahead of Kabir Anurag (US Racing), a member of the Alpine Academy, and Maksimilian Popov (Van Amersfoort Racing). Ninth place went to Salim Hanna (Prema Racing), who also took second on the Rookie podium. Mercedes junior driver Andy Consani (R-ace GP) crossed the finish line in tenth position, but a five-second penalty dropped him back. The final point on offer therefore went to Elia Weiss (Jenzer Motorsport), who also inherited the third step of the Rookie podium.
In the Female class, victory went to Mathilda Paatz (Mathilda Racing by AS Motorsport), nineteenth overall, who finished ahead of Payton Westcott (Van Amersfoort Racing) and Emily Cotty (R-ace GP). Cotty, however, gave way to Ginevra Panzeri (AKM Motorsport) after receiving a ten-second penalty for an irregularity detected at the start.
After Race 2 came the mathematical confirmation of the Rookie title for Oleksandr Bondarev (Prema Racing), the Ukrainian driver from the Williams Driver Academy, who secured the crown with sixth place in class. At the same time, Prema Racing also sealed the Team Trophy, winning the close fight against US Racing.
The battle for the female classification remains open, with Ginevra Panzeri holding a narrow lead over Emily Cotty: everything will be decided in this afternoon’s final race.
Once again, the race delivered plenty of action and close battles, prompting multiple safety car periods, though only one retirement, Ary Bansal (US Racing). The Indian driver, who had started from the second row, was caught in an incident on the opening lap that forced him to rejoin from the back of the field.
Kean Nakamura-Berta: “It was a good race for our championship. We are one point away, and we start on pole for the next one. We will do everything the same way as in this race. The first half was a bit more chilled, as with the cold track temperatures there was not much grip. Everything was managed well under the safety car too. We had a good restart and managed to keep the lead. It was a good race overall, and now eyes forward, we’re looking to do a similar job in Race 3.”
Gabriel Gomez: “the race was not easy, starting a bit further back in P6. The pace was good throughout, and I managed to move up quite quickly to P2. Kean already had a bit of a gap, and it was difficult to close it. After the second-to-last safety car restart, I had an opportunity to go for the lead, but I made a small mistake during the overtake attempt and the chance was gone. I dropped back to P3, then recovered to P2 again. It was a bit of my mistake, and I’m not too happy because I saw we could have won. We’ll try everything now in Race 3 to bring home the best result.”
The last race of the season will start at 3:50 p.m.
Like the previous races, it will last 30 minutes plus one lap and will be broadcast live in Italian on ACI Sport TV (channel 228 on Sky and streaming on live.acisport.tv).
The English-language live stream will be available on the official championship social media channels and through international broadcasters of the E4.