The Italian F.4 Championship is ready to ignite the Autodromo Nazionale Monza with the third round of the season. A high-intensity weekend awaits, with 40 single-seaters lining up on the grid to battle for every tenth of a second and secure crucial points in the overall standings. The round at the Temple of Speed, third out of seven in the 2025 calendar, promises to be a pivotal moment in shaping the fight at the top.
Thursday, June 19, marked the first track action at the legendary Monza circuit. The series protagonists took part in a single, extended testing session, running non-stop from 14:00 to 18:00. Despite several red flag interruptions caused by off-track incidents, drivers managed to complete a solid number of laps, crucial both for rookies getting to grips with the track and for teams fine-tuning setups ahead of the weekend.
At the end of the session, Kean Nakamura-Berta emerged as the fastest. The Prema Racing driver and current championship leader posted a best time of 1:51.876. Behind him was American driver Sebastian Wheldon, 0.242 seconds adrift, continuing the duel at the top seen throughout the early season. Third fastest was Enea Frey (Jenzer Motorsport), 0.
350 seconds off the pace.
Oleksandr Bondarev (Prema Racing), part of the Williams Driver Academy, set the fourth-fastest time, 0.423 seconds behind his teammate. Just ten-thousandths of a second behind came Finnish driver Luka Sammalisto (US Racing) in fifth. Sixth place went to Colombian Salim Hanna (Prema Racing), current leader of the Rookie standings, 0.513 off the benchmark. Seventh was Aleksandr Ruta (Van Amersfoort Racing), just one-thousandth behind Hanna. R-ace GP claimed eighth and ninth with Mercedes Junior Team driver Alex Powell (USA) and Italian Emanuele Olivieri, respectively 0.520 and 0.524 off the top. Gabriel Gomez (US Racing) rounded out the top 10 with a 0.533 gap.
Action resumes on Friday, June 20, with two 40-minute free practice sessions starting at 8:30 and 11:45. Qualifying takes place in the afternoon: Q1 (to set the grid for Race 1) runs from 15:35 to 15:50, followed by Q2 (grid for Race 2) from 16:00 to 16:15. The Race 3 grid will be determined based on each driver's second-fastest lap from the two sessions.
Saturday, June 21, will feature Race 1 at 10:35 and Race 2 at 17:50. Race 3 is scheduled for Sunday, June 22, at 10:20.
All races will be broadcast live on ACI Sport TV (Sky channel 228, Tivùsat channel 52), with live streaming on www.acisport.tv and ACI Sport TV’s Facebook and YouTube pages. English-language coverage will be available through the championship’s official channels and globally distributed via the international media partner network.
Admission to the circuit will be free for all spectators, with open access to the grandstands and paddock. Full event information is available on the official circuit website:
https://www.monzanet.it/evento/aci-racing-weekend-1-3/