Competing in the opening round of the Italian F4 Championship, Christchurch’s Marcus Armstrong has claimed his first podium in the second race of the weekend at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. Earlier in the weekend he finished fifth in race one but had a dnf in the third and final race of the round.
“Not the results we wanted but our eyes remain on the main goal! Onwards and upwards to the next round,” commented Armstrong.
Race 2
Under cloudy skies and with the temperature hovering around 16 degrees, it was again Sebastian Fernandez and his Bhaitech team who led the way to lead the race ahead of all others. As in Race 1 yesterday, the Venezuelan did not surrender his lead at any stage after getting away well from pole position.
This time however, his team mate Lorenzo Colombo, shadowed him closely for the entire race and at the chequered flag he was just 8 tenths of a second behind. Not only this, but the Italian also took the race’s fastest lap albeit just 7 thousandths of a second faster than Fernandez. On the third step of the podium was the New Zealand driver Marcus Armstrong (Prema Power Team).
Fourth place for Armstrong’s team mate, the Estonian Juri Vips, who in the final laps looked as though he would make an attack for third place, but was just unable to do so. Further back was the race for fifth place, with (in order) the Canadian Kami M. Laliberte (Van Amersfort Racing), the Brazilian Felipe Drugovich (Van Amersfort Racing), the Dutch driver Van Uitert (Jenzer Motorsport), Leonardo Lorandi (the first Rookie Driver for team Bhaitech), the Brazilian Enzo Fittipaldi (Prema Power Team), the German Lirim Zendeli (BWT Mucke Motorsport) in tenth position.
Race 3
Three race wins from three starts for Sebastian
Fernandez (Bhaitech), this time without the advantage of starting from pole position. The grid for Race 3, was made up from the driver’s second best qualifying times which meant the Venezuelan started from third position on the grid. Leading the field away was his team-mate, Lorenzo Colombo who struggled away off the line and only made it down into the first turn beyond the tenth place.
The Italian then mounted a grand recovery that saw him eventually finish in second on the podium, aided also by the retirements of the Italian Leonardo Lorandi (Bhaitech) and the Estonian Juri Vips (Prema Power Team), who touched in turn one effectively ending their chances there and then. On the final step of the podium was the Russian Artem Petrov (DR Formula), who himself made a fine drive from grid nine.
Fourth place for the Brazilian Felipe Drugovich (Van Amersfort Racing), who finished in second on the road but was penalised five seconds for exceeding the track limits. Fifth for another Brazilian Enzo Fittipaldi (Prema Power Team), followed by the Dutch driver Job Van Uitert (Jenzer Motorsport), the Guatemalan Ian Rodriguez (DRZ Benelli), the German Zendeli (BWT Mucke Motorsport), the Canadian Kami M.Laliberte (Van Amersfort Racing) and the Italian Aldo Festante (DR Formula).
Race 1 – Click Here
Comments