PREMA Racing put together another stellar Formula 4 weekend at Monza in round 4 of the Italian series. British racer Arvid Lindblad posted a sensational triple win at the fastest venue of the calendar, increasing his championship lead in the overall and rookie classifications.
Lindblad took the win in race 1 after teammate Ugu Ugochukwu was penalized for track limits and driving infringements. The American showed outstanding speed and secured second place in race 2. A spin in race 3 forced him to recover from the back of the pack, but he was able to drive through the field in a few laps, finishing in P9 and scoring valuable points, which solidified his second place in points.
Tuukka Taponen had a tough weekend despite scoring a podium finish with P3 in race 1. Two unavoidable incidents took him away from the leading competition, so the Finnish racer was left with P17 in race 3.
Rashid Al Dhaheri put up an amazing weekend run, delivering his first rookie podium finish and P4 overall in race 3, after navigating the challenges of Monza for the first time. On the other hand, Australian James Wharton faced a tricky weekend but was able to end up with three points finishes. Consistency enabled him to close into P2 in the championship.
Nicola Lacorte was highly competitive as well, and while racing situations did not allow him to fight for the podium, he showed the pace to be a contender. It was not the luckiest weekend for Aurelia Nobels. The Brazilian was involved in two spins but rebounded well in race 3 to take a top-20 finish overall and a win in the woman’s trophy.
#3 UGO UGOCHUKWU
“Not the easiest weekend definitely. I started the first race in P7, and made many overtakes to get to the lead. The pace was really good and I was able to keep the lead until the end, and it was a bit unfortunate to get it taken away for track limits, but that’s the way it went. For Sunday, I knew the pace was strong and I managed to pick up P2 in Race 2, which was good points, but I got a bit of an incident while fighting for the lead in race 3, which was unfortunate. Anyway, we try to take the positive that the speed was good, and we’ll try to be more consistent at Paul Ricard.”
#8 TUUKKA TAPONEN
“The championship so far hasn’t been as the team, FDA and I expected. We had a lot of bad luck again this weekend. I still finished race 1 in P3, which is good for the championship, but otherwise, sometimes there is just not a lot you can do to avoid some situations, but we need to move forward to the rest of the season.”
#13 JAMES WHARTON
“Considering that the pace we had in the races was not optimal, to maximize the points was the main goal. We also closed the gap to P2 in the championship, so in the end it was a good weekend. However, we are definitely not where we want to be but we will try to get there in Paul Ricard.”
#14 RASHID AL DHAHERI
“It was a very thrilling weekend, with a lot of moments we can be really proud about and learn from. It was really exciting, we have been able to do a lot of overtaking, especially on the long straights. With a little bit more, we could have gained the overall podium in race 3, but we still did a great job for the rookie standing and made steps forward in the general classification.”
#16 AURELIA NOBELS
“It was a difficult weekend, having a DNF and a few issues in the first two races, but I’m happy to have finished Race 3 with good improvements, and good battles on track as well. We showed some pace and we won the women’s trophy so I’m really happy about that.”
#23 ARVID LINDBLAD
“It has been a really really good weekend. The pace was strong immediately and I felt really comfortable with the car. We qualified well with P3 for Race 1 and two poles for Race 2 and 3, and all three races went really well with three victories. Super happy and grateful to the team that did an incredible job, especially my engineer Vincent and Mauro and Laura my mechanics!”
#47 NICOLA LACORTE
“I’m pretty happy about the weekend. I had the speed that I wanted, but faced some bad luck in Race 1 and 3. I still managed to get some good runs and achieve valuable points for the championship.”