Tomas Stolzermanis made a successful debut in the Italian F4 Championship at the weekend, finishing in the top ten in all three races in the first round of the season at the Misano circuit. In the last race, however, the Latvian pilot received a penalty, which dropped him out of the “Top 10” in the final results.
In the first race, Stolcermanis started from the tenth position, but initially rose to the ninth place. After the end of the safety car period, the Prema Racing team driver overtook Davidi Larini, the son of former F1 pilot Nicolas Larini, already in eighth position. Later, in an intense fight, Štolrman was overtaken by teammate Keen Nakamura-Berta, after which the rest of the race was calmer and our athlete finished ninth. In this race, Stolzermanis showed the fastest lap time.
Stolcermanis started the second race from the 15th starting place and lost one position at the beginning. When the two leading competitors did not split the track, the safety car came on the track, but Thomas was already thirteenth. Later, the safety car was put to work again, after which Stolcerman managed to move up several positions and finish in ninth place. When one of the competitors received a five-second penalty, the Latvian racing driver was in eighth place. This is the second result awarded among debutants.
The 16-year-old Štolcermanis started the third race from the 12th position and after the start this time also fell one place lower. This time, too, it was not without the safety car, and when the race resumed, Tomas again managed to overtake several competitors and rise higher. After the end of the second safety car period, Stolcermanis already fought for the eighth place, which he won. When the safety car left the track for the third time, Stolcermanis was already seventh, in the end he even fought for sixth place. Unfortunately, the judges gave him a five-second penalty for a collision with Enzo Yehu, which dropped the driver to 14th place in the official results.
A fantastic start to the season for Stolzerman’s teammate Freddie Slater, who completed the first three rounds of the Italian F4 Championship last year. He started this season with victories in all three races, and another Prema team pilot, Alex Powell, finished second all three times. Gianmarco Pradel (“US Racing”), Akshay Bohra (“US Racing”) and Nakamura-Berta each finished in the top three. Stolcermanis is in 13th position in the overall standings after the first round.
The second stage of the season from May 31 to June 2 will take place at the Imola circuit.
Overall score after stage 1:
Tags: Stolzermanis finishes top ten races Italian debut F1LV Blog
