The US Racing driver ends the weekend with victories in Race 1 and Race 3, together with a third-place finish in Race 2. Pending the confirmation of the provisional Race 3 results after technical and sporting checks, he leaves the opening round on 82 championship points.
Starting from pole position, Sammalisto controlled the race from lights to flag, comfortably managing two Safety Car periods. He led the field on both restarts, although the second Safety Car remained on track until the chequered flag, preventing any final sprint to the finish.
Completing a US Racing one-two was teammate Noah Killion, who rounded off an eventful weekend in style. After finishing seventh in Race 1, the Australian had been forced to retire from Race 2 following contact, before bouncing back with second place in the final race.
Third place went to Christian Costoya, the McLaren Driver Development Programme driver racing for Prema Racing. The Spaniard enjoyed a steadily improving weekend, having scored points in every race before claiming his first podium of the season.
The decisive move came at Vallelunga's Tornantino corner, where he overtook Kenzo Craigie for third.
The Mercedes Junior Team driver representing R-ace GP later dropped to tenth at the finish. Nevertheless, Craigie leaves Vallelunga after a highly competitive weekend, highlighted by his Race 2 victory and a strong statement in the championship fight.
Fourth place went to Oleksandr Bondarev, representing the Williams Driver Academy with Prema Racing, ahead of Ary Bansal (US Racing).
Sixth and seventh places were claimed by two more US Racing drivers, underlining the German team's outstanding form in the early stages of the 2026 season: Oleksandr Savinkov, already third in Race 1, and Edward Robinson.
Prema Racing drivers Alp Aksoy and Roman Kamyab completed the top nine, with Kamyab arriving from a second-place finish in Race 2 earlier in the day.
Ludovico Busso (US Racing) finished eleventh, ahead of Thomas Bearman (Van Amersfoort Racing) and Dominik Simek (Trident Motorsport). Fourteenth was Greek driver of French heritage Philippe-Armand Karras (R-ace GP), making his E4 Championship debut alongside his twin brother Jean-Paul. Completing the points-paying positions was Georgiy Zasov (Prema Racing).
The results remain provisional pending the completion of technical and sporting checks.
Luka Sammalisto: "The whole weekend went really well. We struggled a little bit in qualifying, so we just had to work with the starting positions we had. Race 1 went really well and we won it, then we finished P3 in Race 2, and now we've taken another win. In this last race especially, we really showed the pace we had. The car was incredible and the team did a mega job. I'm really happy to finish the weekend with another win because I think we really deserved it."
Noah Killion: "It was a bit of an up-and-down weekend for me. In Race 1 I finished with a solid P7, then unfortunately I had a DNF in Race 2 after contact with another driver. It's really nice to finish the weekend on the podium in Race 3. Unfortunately I didn't quite have the pace to fight for the win today, but I'm happy with the result."