Photo: ACI Sport

Italian F4 Championship leader Lance Stroll clinched a hard-fought victory for Prema Powerteam in the reverse grid race two at Vallelunga.

The 15-year-old Canadian started in ninth place, but stormed up to fifth at the start, and then began catching the drivers in front at a swift rate. He took the lead with a switch-back on Andrea Fontana two laps from the end, and pulled away to take victory by over two seconds. Jenzer’s Alain Valente completed the podium.

The start saw several changes in position, with the Malta Racing car of poleman Keith Camilleri going into anti-stall, while the Euronova cars of Fontana and Leonardo Pulcini surged past Edi Haxhiu to go into first and second places respectively.

A battle ensued between the stablemates, with Pulcini passing Fontana for the lead on lap three, but his compatriot returned him the favour three laps later.

The race sprang to life right after that, with Stroll passing Valente for fourth on the same lap. On the following lap, Haxhiu was baulked by the struggling Pulcini, which allowed Stroll to get past the Bosnian. The Ferrari junior proceeded to pass both Euronova cars in front of him, while Haxhiu made an error which dropped him down to seventh.

Pulcini continued to struggle, and was passed by Valente and race one winner Brandon Maisano, ending up in fifth place at the?flag. Brazilain driver Joao Vieira ended up on Pulcini’s gearbox in sixth, while Israeli driver Bar Baruch pipped Haxhiu to the post on the last lap to take seventh.

Mattia Drudi and Takashi Kasai rounded off the top ten, neither driver being able to make much progress from their starting grid positions.

Race results

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Photo: ACI Sport

French driver Brandon Maisano held off the advances of teammate Lance Stroll to take his fourth victory of the 2014 Italian F4 season, in race one at Vallelunga.

The 21-year-old Prema driver led from the start, but came under pressure from Stroll later in the race. The Canadian, who moved up from fourth on the grid, tried to find a way through on multiple occasions, but was forced to settle for second ultimately, the gap at the end being under three-tenths of a second.

Takashi Kasai lost out to Stroll early on, but managed to come home third to make it a clean sweep of the podium for Prema. Mattia Drudi pushed Kasai hard for much of the race, taking fourth, ahead of Euronova racer?Leonardo Pulcini making up the top five.

Alain Valente took sixth for Jenzer, losing out to Pulcini on the last lap after being pushed wide, with DAV driver?Joao Vieira coming on top of a race-long tussle with Pulcini’s teammate?Andrea Fontana to take seventh. Cram Motorsport’s?Edi Haxhiu and Keith Camilleri of Malta Racing?rounded off the top ten.

Championship frontrunner Andrea Russo moved up to fifth at the start, but lost his front wing on the first lap, and retired with damage after colliding with Giovanni Altoe.

Race results

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Photo: ACI Sport

Italian F4 Trophy class championship leader Brandon Maisano continued his strong form to take two pole positions at Vallelunga in the fifth round of the 2014 season.

The 21-year-old Frenchman was unmatched in the first session, taking pole by three-tenths of a second, ahead of Japanese teammate Takashi Kasai, who made it a 1-2 for Prema. Italian driver Mattia Drudi will start third in Race 1 tomorrow, beating Ferrari junior and main series leader Lance Stroll.

Joao Vieira was fifth fastest, and will share the third row of the grid with Euronova’s Leonardo Pulcini. Swiss driver Alain Valente was the best Jenzer driver in seventh, while the rest of the top ten spots on the grid were made up by Ivan Matveev, Andrea Russo and Matteo Desideri. Times were relatively close, with the top thirteen all within a second.

The second session, that decided the grid for race three, was closer at the front, with Maisano edging out teammate Stroll in another front row lockout for Prema. Drudi will start third again, alongside Kasai in fourth.

Pulcini and Vieira locked out the third row once again, swapping places from the first session, with Pulcini’s teammate Andrea Fontana taking seventh on the grid. Valente, Keith Camilleri and Mahaveer Raghunathan rounded out the top ten.

Gustavo Bandeira and Jonathan Giudice, both of whom participated only in the second free practice session, did not set a time in either qualifying session.

Qualifying results

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Photo: ACI Sport

Prema’s Brandon Maisano enjoyed a strong start to his weekend by topping both practice sessions in the fifth round of the Italian F4 season at Vallelunga.

The 21-year-old Frenchman, who leads the Trophy class standings, went quickest in the morning by 0.042 seconds?ahead of teammate, and main series championship leader Lance Stroll.

Italian Mattia Drudi was third quickest, ahead of Leonardo Pulcini, who was the top Euronova driver. Brazilian Joao Vieira, driving for Antonelli, made up the top five, with the third Prema driver Takashi Kasai in sixth place.

Matteo Desideri went seventh quickest, with Keith Camilleri, Andrea Russo and Alain Valente making up the top ten.

The second session saw track temperatures increase considerably, which prevented most drivers from improving on their first session times. Maisano was the one of the few drivers in the top ten in the morning to post a faster time, though his improvement was only eight-thousandths of a second.

Drudi pipped Stroll to second, while Russo and Ivan Matveev made up the top five, the Russian also improving on his lap time in the morning.?Camilleri was sixth fastest, ahead of Euronova duo Pulcini and Andrea Fontana. Kasai and Valente rounded out the top ten.

Practice results

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Photo: ACI Sport

Brandon Maisano led from start to finish as he secured his first win in the Italian F4 Championship in race one at Mugello.

After starting on pole, the 21-year-old Frenchman claimed victory by just under 2.5 seconds from Prema team-mate Lance Stroll. Stroll’s second place allowed the Ferrari Driver Academy star to collect a full 25 points towards the championship, thus extending his lead.

Leonardo Pulcini lost third place to the fast-starting Joao Vieira off the line but managed to reclaim the place when the Brazilian driver ran wide a few corners later.

Mattia Drudi also found his way back past Vieira and pressured Pulcini until the end, but ultimately had to settle for fourth.

A five-place grid penalty left Andrea Russo starting way back in 15th place but the Diegi driver staged a fine recovery. He got up to ninth on the first lap and then worked his way past Lucas Mauron, Keith Camilleri and Alain Valente to claim sixth, finishing right on Vieira’s tail.

Gustavo Bandeira fell from sixth to 11th on lap one but came back to eighth behind Valente, with Camilleri ninth and Takashi Kasai passing Mauron for tenth.

Race results

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Photo: ACI Sport

Brandon Maisano continued his dominance at the Mugello circuit by clinching pole positions for races one and three in the third round of the Italian F4 season.

The Prema driver had dominated the practice sessions on Friday and maintained his superiority into qualifying, beating out teammate Lance Stroll by around 0.4 seconds in both sessions.

Euronova’s Leonardo Pulcini was over a second behind Maisano’s time in third, ahead of Mattia Drudi. It was an all-Brazilian row three, with Antonelli driver Joao Vieira and DAV’s Gustavo Bandeira qualifying fifth and sixth respectively.

Swiss racer Alain Valente beat Prema’s third driver Takashi Kasai for seventh, while Keith Camilleri of Malta Racing and Jenzer’s Lucas Mauron brought up the fifth row of the grid.

In the second session, which decided the race three grid, Drudi managed to take third on the grid behind the two Prema drivers, albeit nearly a second slower than second-place man and championship leader Stroll. Diegi’s Andrea Russo was fourth, ahead of Valente who was once again the top Jenzer driver, in fifth.

Vieira will start sixth in race three, with Euronova locking out row four,?Pulcini ahead of ?Fontana. Mauron and Camilleri will share row five for race three as well, with their positions reverse of that in the first session.

Qualifying results

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Photo: ACI Sport

Frenchman Brandon Maisano was quickest overall over three practice sessions on Friday at the third round of the Italian F4 season at Mugello.

The Prema driver, who currently tops the Trophy class standings for drivers born before 1996, was quickest in the first two sessions, while stablemate Lance Stroll pipped him to the top spot in a wet final session.

Maisano was over six-tenths quicker than the rest of the field in session one, and continued his dominance to go half a second quicker than Stroll in session two.

Mattia Drudi, who took his maiden victory in the previous weekend at Imola, managed to split the Prema duo in the first session. Diegi’s Andrea Russo ended up fourth, with Brazilian Joao Vieira fifth for Antonelli. Russo and Alain Valente, who finished the session in sixth place, were the only drivers to go faster in the first session.

The top ten in the first session was completed by Maltese driver Keith Camilleri, Swiss Edi Haxhiu, Brazilian Gustavo Bandeira and Euronova driver Leonardo Pulcini.

Session two saw Drudi take up the best-of-the-rest third place in the timesheets, ahead of Brazilians Vieira and Bandeira making up the top five. Takashi Kasai, the third Prema driver ended up sixth fastest, with Camilleri, Pulcini and Haxhiu completing the top ten.

The afternoon session saw heavy rain, forcing the drivers to switch to the wet-weather tyres. The session was marred by four red-flagged periods. Ferrari junior and championship leader Stroll went quickest early on and managed to stay on top. Maisano’s considerable mid-session improvement was only enough for second fastest.

Bandeira was over three seconds slower in third, with Drudi ahead of Jenzer drivers Valente and Lucas Mauron in fourth. Russo, Andrea Fontana, Kasai and Trophy class driver Ali Al Khalifa completed the top ten.

Practice results

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Photo: ACI Sport

Ferrari Driver Academy star Lance Stroll clinched his second victory of the weekend to extend his Italian F4 championship lead in the third race at Imola.

It was a relaxing Sunday drive for the 15-year-old Canadian for the most part. Having started on pole, Stroll had a good start and was never headed.

His teammate Brandon Maisano started seventh instead of second, after the stewards made a last-minute decision to hand the Frenchman a grid penalty for his clash with Andrea Russo in race two. Maisano had a strong start and moved up to fourth by the end of the first lap. Meanwhile, race two winner Mattia Drudi, promoted to second on the grid, stalled at the start, finishing down in 14th at the flag.

While Stroll pulled away, Maisano passed Russo for third, and soon got past Cairoli for second. Russo meanwhile, began to drop back, losing several positions before calling it quits. An error from Leonardo Pulcini dropped him to fifth behind Euronova teammate Ivan Matveev, the pair keeping their positions to the finish.

Edi Haxhiu took his highest finish in sixth for Cram, ahead of Italian Andrea Fontana. Alain Valente had an eventful race, getting a knock from Maltese driver Keith Camilleri after the latter steered into him when Valente was going past. He managed to recover to eighth, passing Mahaveer Raghunathan towards the end. Jenzer’s Lucas Mauron rounded off the top ten.

Race results

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Photo: ACI Sport

Ferrari Driver Academy member Lance Stroll took a close victory in race one of the second round of the Italian F4 season at Imola.

The 15-year-old Canadian was harried all the way to the checkered flag by teammate Brandon Maisano, with the duo exchanging fastest laps for the most part of the race. The gap between the two Prema drivers rarely exceeded a second, but Maisano had to settle for second ultimately.

Behind them it was all to play for. Ivan Matveev, who started third, lost many places after an off-track excursion and the Russian driver finished down in 13th place. Diegi’s Andrea Russo got a good start and was third by lap two, but was not able to make any impression on the Premas, finishing over 16 seconds behind the race leader.

Leonardo Pulcini took fourth ahead of Malta Racing driver Keith Camilleri in a strong fifth place, holding off a late charge from Jenzer’s Alain Valente, who passed Camilleri’s teammate Zack Dante after being stuck behind him for most of the race.

Mattia Drudi recovered from an early spin at Variante Alta which dropped him to 20th, to finish in eighth place, passing Prema’s Takashi Kasai on the last lap of the race. Kasai took ninth, ahead of DAV Racing’s Brazilian driver Gustavo Bandeira,?who starts on reverse grid pole for race 2 on Sunday.

Russo was given a two-second time penalty?post-race for setting a best sector time?under yellow flags. This meant that Pulcini took the final podium spot in third, while Russo was demoted to fourth.

Race results

*After a two-second penalty

The post Stroll beats Maisano to take race one win at Imola appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: ACI Sport

15-year-old Lance Stroll followed up his qualifying domination at Adria with another double pole position at Imola in the second round of the Italian F4 season.

The Canadian went on top halfway through the first session and wrested the lead back from teammate Brandon Maisano towards the end, taking pole by a mammoth 0.7 seconds.

SMP-backed Russian driver Ivan Matveev managed to get a surprise third place, ahead of Italians Mattia Drudi, Matteo Cairoli and championship leader Andrea Russo, with less than a tenth separating sixth from third.

Leonardo Pulcini took seventh on the grid, with the Malta Racing duo of Zack Dante and Keith Camilleri almost a second behind the Euronova driver in eighth and ninth. Swiss driver Alain Valente was the lone Jenzer driver in the top ten grid spots for race one.

The second qualifying session, which decided the grid for race three, saw the Prema drivers stay in the pits till there were just seven minutes to run. F & M driver Drudi took advantage of their early absence and stayed on top for most of the session. Maisano went fastest on his penultimate run before Stroll took over, vaulting up from seventh with his last lap to take pole.

Maisano improved on his final lap but fell 0.082s short of Stroll, with laptimes on Saturday morning being considerably slower than those of Friday practice. Drudi held on to third by five-thousandths of a second ahead of Cairoli. Swiss driver Edi Haxhiu improved significantly to take fifth on the grid, ahead of Russo, who secured sixth again.

Matveev and Pulcini, both racing for Euronova-run teams, locked out the fourth row of the grid. Camilleri qualified ninth, with Brazilian Joao Vieira tenth.

Qualifying results

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