Prema scored some extremely valuable results in terms of their championship hunt at Imola in the fifth round of the Italian Formula 4 Championship at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. This season’s summer breaks and vacations quickly became a distant memory in Imola as torrential rain conditioned the whole round and even forced the stewards to delay the start of race 2.
“A positive weekend in Imola. Our car felt good from FP1 and afterwards we managed to get pole position in Q1,” commented Marcus Armstrong. “Unfortunately we had a technical issue in Q2 which cost us the double-pole. In the race we secured a victory, fourth and third. We did a great job of damage limitation after our mishap in Q2. Big thank you to all of the team this weekend.”
Armstrong was the star of the weekend. The New Zealander, fielded by the Ferrari Driver Academy, increased his advantage at the front end of the charts where he now has 17 points over his nearest contender. He started in dominant fashion with a pole-to-flag win in race 1, before recovering from P8 on the grid to P4 at the finish in a great display of consistency in an extremely wet race 2. In race 3, run with slick tires and improving conditions, he grabbed another podium finish in P3 rebounding from qualifying woes.
It was and up-and-down weekend for Jüri Vips. The Estonian, who is running in the Italian series part-time, secured a second place in race 2. In race 1, an off forced him to retire while in race 3 he fought for the podium as hard as he could before an off while battling for P2 made him content with sixth place.
Enzo Fittipaldi didn’t experience a particularly lucky weekend but – as usual – impressed for his consistency. The Ferrari Driver Academy man was involved in a mistake by another driver in race 1, while damage to his front wing saw he finish in P12 in race 2. In race 3, which proved particularly tricky with only one dry line to use, he secured seventh place and P2 among rookies.
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