Qualifying for the final round of the Italian F.4 Championship took place today at the Misano World Circuit. The season finale, featuring 44 drivers representing 28 different nationalities, will adopt a four-race format. The drivers were therefore split evenly into two groups of 22 based on their positions in the standings, results, and previous race placements, and took part in separate qualifying sessions.
The first group on track saw Sebastian Wheldon of Prema Racing take the spotlight. The Anglo-American driver, part of the Andretti Global junior programme, set a best lap of 1’35.621. The benchmark time, however, came later when Gabriel Gomez stopped the clock at 1’35.577 in the second group. The Brazilian from US Racing thus claimed the top spot in Group A, securing two pole positions for the weekend, while Sebastian Wheldon will start first in Group B, meaning he will line up on pole for Race 1 (Groups B and C).
Qualifying 1
Nathaniel Berreby (Maffi Racing) and Dante Vinci (Van Amersfoort Racing) were among the first to improve their times just minutes after the start of the Group 1 session. Oleksandr Savinkov of R-ace GP was the first to move to the top, before Andre Rodriguez (Cram Motorsport) further lowered the lap time from 1’39 to 1’37.
The reference time then settled around the 1’36 mark, with Alex Powell (R-ace GP) and Dante Vinci briefly leading, until Sebastian Wheldon took control. The American put together a sequence of quick laps, eventually setting a 1’35.799 on his final attempt, securing the top spot in the group.
Behind him came teammate Newman Chi, fighting for Rookie standings, who finished 0.161 seconds adrift. Luka Sammalisto (US Racing), fastest in both free practice sessions, was third at 0.254, followed by championship leader Kean Nakamura-Berta (Prema Racing) at 0.320, and Kabir Anurag (US Racing) at 0.356.
Sixth and seventh went to the PHM Racing duo Reno Francot (+0.408) and David Cosma-Cristofor (+0.636).
Savinkov, Vinci, and Powell, after trading the lead in the early stages, completed the top 10 in that order.
The fastest among the female drivers in the group was Mathilda Paatz (Mathilda Racing by AS Motorsport), ahead of Payton Westcott (Van Amersfoort Racing). The Californian will, however, serve a two-place grid penalty for overtaking under Virtual Safety Car conditions during Free Practice 2.
Qualifying 2
In the Group 2 session, Ludovico Busso, the Italian driver of US Racing, was among the first to move to the top of the timesheets, followed by Salim Hanna, the Colombian driver of Prema Racing who currently leads the Rookie standings.
In the closing minutes, Gabriel Gomez set the benchmark time, then improved it further to a 1’35.577, the fastest lap overall. Hanna ended second at 0.122, while Maximilian Popov (Van Amersfoort Racing) took third at 0.156.
Fourth place went to Frenchman Andrea Charle Dupé (Prema Racing) at 0.272, followed by Ukrainian Oleksander Bondarev (Prema Racing) at 0.423. Just 10 thousandths behind came Kirill Kutskov (Maffi Racing) at 0.433. Emanuele Olivieri (R-ace GP) was seventh at 0.446, ahead of Marcus Saeter (Van Amersfoort Racing) at 0.561, Artem Severiukhin (Jenzer Motorsport) at 0.714, and Jan Koller (US Racing) at 0.741, completing the top 10.
The combined classification was determined by assigning 1st place to the driver with the overall fastest lap, 2nd to the best driver from the other group, 3rd to the second-fastest in the quicker group, 4th to the second from the other group, and so on.
The groups were therefore formed according to the following structure:
Group A: 1st – 4th – etc.
Group B: 2nd – 5th – etc.
Group C: 3rd – 6th – etc.
Gabriel Gomez: "To be honest, it was really good overall. We worked a lot during the test here with the team, and they did a really great job. We saw the results all weekend long — we were always fighting for the lead. In quali, it was just about staying focused and maximizing every lap. I managed to do two good laps, and the second one was a bit better to take the overall pole. I’m very happy to start the last round of the championship like this. We’ll fight until the very last moment to try to bring the title home. I knew it was going to be a hard weekend for sure, but we’ll try everything. I just need to thank the team; they did a fantastic job to put the car on top like this. When the math says it’s still possible, we’ll give it everything. Now, full focus on the race."
Sebastian Wheldon: "I knew it was going to be a tough quali. I had Kean in my group, but I also knew we had really good pace. I was able to get a strong lap in and get it done. I’ll try my best to win. The team has done a great job and gave me a really good car. Let’s see what we can do in the races tomorrow. I honestly didn’t expect it to be this hot, because it was quite cold in the morning, but the track gained a lot of grip compared to FP1."
Saturday, 11 October schedule
Race 1 (Groups B & C) – 09:00 AM
Race 2 (Groups A & B) – 1:20 PM
Race 3 (Groups A & C) – 5:00 PM
Sunday, 12 October
Final race 11:00 AM
Imola recovery race 4:00 PM
All races will run over 25 minutes plus one lap and will be broadcast live in Italian on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228 and live.acisport.tv). The English-language live stream will be available on the championship’s social media pages and through the international broadcasters of the Italian F.4 Championship network.