Italian F4 gets underway in Misano

• Italiano

Italian F4 Championship fires into life in Misano this weekend (1-2 April) with almost 30 cars on the grid. Prema Power Team is undoubtedly as favorites by virtue of winning the 2016 Teams’ Championship. The Italian squad will start the season with the 16-year-old Estonian Juri Vips – 2016 winner of the Rookie Trophy, American Juan Manuel Correa and two newcomers, New Zealand’s Marcus Armstrong and Brazil’s Enzo Fittipaldi, the Emerson Fittipaldi grandson.

Five cars for Jenzer Motorsport, that clinched the Drivers’ Championship last year with Marcos Siebert. The Andreas Jenzer’s team signed Swiss Giacomo Bianchi, Indian Kush Maini, Dutch Job Van Uitert, Argentinian Giorgio Carrara and the other Italian Federico Malvestiti.

Bhaitech team has confirmed Italy’s Lorenzo Colombo and Venezuela’s Sebastian Fernandez, who are both at their second season in the Italian series, together with 16-year-old Leonardo Lorandi, the younger brother of the regular FIA F3 driver Alessio, who set the quickest time in the most recent testing day at Misano. Female racer Sophia Floersch, Lirim Zendell, Oliver Soderström and Olli Caldwell will race for BWT Mücke Motorsport. After having accumulated three years of experience in the Italian F4 Championship powered by Abarth, DR Formula team will be again at the start, confirming for the second year the Russian driver Artem Petrov, as well as lining up other two cars for Italian Aldo Festante and the Brazilian rookie Luiz Felipe Branquinho. Cram Motorsport signed Italian Mariano Lavigna and Dutchman Leonard Hoogenboom. ADM Motorsport will line up a car for the other local driver Mauro Auricchio. Italian Davide Venditti will race for Diegi Motorsport. DRZ Benelli will enter a car for Guatemala’s Ian Rodriguez.

Making its debut in the Italian Championship is the team of Henry Morrogh – a legendary name in the international motorsport – with which Andrea Dall’Accio will race his first season in car racing. Another important new entry for the F4 national Championship is the Van Amersfoort Racing. The Dutch team will line up three cars for the Brit Louis Gachot, the Canadian Kami Laliberté and the Brazilian Felipe Drugovich. Coloni Motorsport will join the series from the second or third round of the calendar.

A total of 28 drivers from 17 different countries, as well as 12 teams are awaited in Misano. The programme includes two free practice sessions on Friday, both over 40 minutes. Qualifying takes place on Saturday morning at 9:35 (divided into two-15 minute sessions) to decide the starting grids of Race 1 and 2. The grid for Race 3 (which this year will be held over 28 minutes + 1 lap), will be made up by the second best times achieved by drivers in any of the qualifying sessions. Race 1 will be held on Saturday at 16:55. Races 2 and 3 will be held on Sunday at 10:10 and 17:10 respectively.

Fans can follow all three races live on www.f4championship.com and the official WSK Promotion App.

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