Nothing could be taken for granted in Race 3, possibly the most spectacular of the weekend, which saw fierce competition in the opening laps and several changes in the standings. In the end, Akshay Bohra took victory with a 0.7-second gap from second-placed Jack Beeton. The Australian driver from US Racing started from the third row and capitalized on the chaotic early laps, which also saw a restart behind the Safety Car following a collision between two Van Amersfoort Racing cars driven by Lin Hodenius and Gustav Jonsson. Third place on the podium went to Swiss driver Ethan Ischer, representing Jenzer Motorsport. Ischer delivered a superb race, overtaking Freddie Slater, initially third, by breaking through the defenses of the British driver from Prema Racing.
Fourth place and Rookie win went to Prema Racing’s Japanese Alpine Academy driver Kean-Nakamura Berta, matching his result from Race 1 and putting him atop the Rookie Championship standings with 65 points. He was followed across the finish line by his Latvian teammate Tomass Stolcermanis, who finished fifth and second on the Rookie podium. The two put on a great show in the battles of Race 3, with Stolcermanis in particular defending his position from the persistent attacks of Gianmarco Pradel. The US Racing Australian repeatedly tried to overtake but was never able to find the final breakthrough. Indian Prema Racing driver Dion Gowda finished seventh. Eighth place and third-best Rookie went to Swiss driver Enea Frey of Jenzer Motorsport. He was followed at the finish line by Maksimilian Popov of PHM AIX Racing. Rounding out the top 10 was Freddie Slater, who had been running in P3 in the early stages but dropped back in the second half of the race. Yet another highly animated race with battles for the points positions.
Just missing out on the final point in 11th was Hiyu Yamakoshi, who had led the standings after Race 2 with 43 points and is now second overall. Starting from 20th on the grid, Yamakoshi made a brilliant start, already reaching 10th place with 10 cars overtaken.
Some issues, however, for Mercedes junior Alex Powell from Prema Racing, who had to pit for a tire change after a collision with Savinkov. The American-Jamaican driver was later penalized with a 5-second penalty (Stewards decision n.7). Problems also for Rashid Al Dhaheri, who stalled at the start from the front row, later pitting to change his front wing after a collision with Viisoreanu. He too received a 5-second penalty (Stewards decision n.5). The Emirati driver from Prema Racing still managed to finish 12th (P17 after penalty). Behind him were R-ace GP’s Chinese driver Enzo Yeh, Tuscan Davide Larini from PHM AIX Racing, and Emanuele Olivieri from AKM Motorsport, who were once again key players in the race. Also noteworthy was the performance of Serbian driver Andrija Kostic from Van Amersfoort Racing, who finished 16th ahead of Alex Powell. Completing the Race 3 standings were Romanian driver Luca Viisoreanu from Real Racing, American Everett Stack from PHM AIX Racing; followed by AKM Motorsport drivers Mattia Marchiante, making his Formula 4 debut after competing in the Italian Prototypes Championship this year, and Ukrainian Oleksandr Savinkov.
The standings after the first round see Bohra in the lead with 54 points, followed by Yamakoshi with 43 points, Jack Beeton and Gustav Jonsson tied for third with 30 points each, and Slater in fifth with 29 points.
The next Euro 4 Championship event will be at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg bei Knittelfeld from September 13-15.
Akshay Bohra: “It was almost a perfect weekend. P1 in all practices, P1 in both qualifying, P1 in two out of three races. Apart from Race 2, which we bounced back from really well, it’s been all ideal. I can’t thank my team enough, and the people around me, my family, and everyone supporting me. I’m just so grateful, it’s not possible without them. I’m really thankful that we were able to bounce back from my mistake this morning, and dominate in the last race.”
Jack Beeton: “Starting P5 I was just trying to get the best start as possible. Hopefully move up to P4 and P3. Al Dhaheri stalled, I managed to pass Slater and Nakamura before Turn 1, around the outside, which was good. I was really close with Bohra, we made quite a big gap to P3. It was quite chaotic, I was hoping to pass him at the start, obviously dirty air is a big problem around this track, you want to just get ahead as soon as you can, so that your tires can survive for the end. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get ahead at the start, so it just made the rest of the race much more difficult.”
Ethan Ischer: “It was quite the hard race. I was starting P6, so I didn’t think I would catch back the top 3. At the end was a tough race, very warm, at the same time we know it’s a quite aggressive track on the tires. We tried to manage the tires the best we can and at the end we were a bit faster than the rest of the grid. It was very tough to follow Beeton and Bohra, next race I will try to follow them a bit easily! At Spielberg I hope in another podium.”