Kacper Sztuka delivered a stunning performance at Mugello Circuit during this morning's qualifying session. The Polish driver from US Racing secured all three pole positions up for grabs in the sixth out of seven rounds of the Italian F.4 Championship. In the first qualifying session, the fastest time came in the final moments, with the winning lap recorded at 1’47.191. Sharing the front row in the first race, starting at 17:50 tonight, will be rookie Tuukka Taponen from Prema Racing, Finish member of the Ferrari Driver Academy. Only 6 milliseconds separated the two drivers at the top in the first race of the weekend. Ugo Ugochukwu, the American McLaren junior driver from Prema, claimed the third position with a gap of 0.188. Fourth was the Australian Gianmarco Pradel from US Racing, with a gap of 0.212. The third row is occupied by two Prema drivers, Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad and Emirati driver Rashid Al Dhaheri, who recorded gaps from Sztuka of 0.295 and 0.404 respectively. Starting from behind them in race 1 will be Italian driver Brando Badoer, the star of Van Amersfoort Racing, with a gap of 0.465; and Australian James Wharton, Ferrari Driver Academy of Prema Racing, with a gap of 0.509. In the ninth qualifying position for race 1 was Akshay Bohra, US Racing driver who had been the fastest on the track during the free practice day, with a gap today of 0.638. Tenth best lap of the first session went to Portuguese driver Ivan Domingues from Van Amersfoort Racing, trailing by 0.689.
The second session, following a brief pause, was again extremely positive for Kacper Sztuka, who this time claimed the pole with a lap time of 1’47.224. Second was Ugo Ugochukwu with a gap of only 38 thousandths of a second, followed by Arvid Lindblad at 91 thousandths. The gaps remained tight with the top 3 drivers separated by less than just a tenth of a second, then Tuukka Taponen in fourth place trailed with 0.
143. Fifth was Brando Badoer at 0.214; followed by Akshay Bohra at 0.298. Emirati racer Rashid Al Dhaheri was seventh with a gap of 0.301 from the Polish leader, then James Wharton in eighth with a gap of 0.380. Qualifying in ninth place was Maltese-Filipino driver Zachary David from US Racing, with a gap of 0.511. Closing the top 10 was Ivan Domingues, trailing by 0.587.
The grid for race 3 it is drawn based on the second-best time recorded by the drivers between the two sessions. Once again, Kacper Sztuka took the advantage, with the second-best lap completed in 1’47.239 during the second session. The front row in the final race on Sunday will be shared with Ugo Ugochukwu, closely trailing by 0.023. Arvid Lindblad will start third with a gap of 0.256, followed by James Wharton at 0.406. The third row belongs to Brando Badoer with a gap of 0.457 from the second-best time, then Tuukka Taponen at 0.466. Akshay Bohra claimed the seventh position with a gap of 0.576, followed in eighth place by teammate Zahary David trailing by 0.611 from Sztuka. Rashid Al Dhaheri will start ninth in race 3, thanks to a margin of 0.677 from the second-best lap. Closing the top 10 in the starting grid of the final race will be Brazilian driver Matheus Ferreira from Van Amersfoort Racing with the Alpine Academy insignia, recording a gap of 0.692.
Kacper Sztuka: “it was really good qualifying, Q1 and Q2. All three laps were really good, the car was really fast today. We made some improvements from yesterday’s free practices. I’m just really happy, great job by the Team and me. We are for sure fighting; we are still looking for the Championship. We need to get more wins and good points to keep it alive. We’ll just try to make it, and I think we are on a good way right now. All the Team was really fast, we just found a good set up, and we are still pushing.”
Race 1 tonight, Saturday, September 30, starts at 17:50, lasting for 30 minutes + 1 lap. On Sunday, October 1st, race 2 begins at 9:55 (30 minutes + 1 lap), and the final race of the weekend, race 3, starts at 16:50 (30 minutes + 1 lap).
The three races of the weekend will be broadcast live with English commentary on the Euro 4 Championship's YouTube and Facebook pages and on Motorsport TV (https://eu.motorsport.tv/); Italian commentary will be available on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228), www.acisport.it, and the Facebook page @acisporttv.
Tickets for Saturday and Sunday are available on TicketOne at the following link: https://www.ticketone.it/artist/aci-racing-weekend.