Italian F4 Championship contender Mick Schumacher closed up the gap in the championship as he took victory at Vallelunga. With his team-mate joining him on the podium, it was another strong weekend for Prema Powerteam.
As the lights went out Juri Vips hoped to maintain his pole position, but was unable to hold off team-mate Mick Schumacher. Most drivers made it through the first laps relatively unscathed, with only Ricardo Feller falling to the back.
Schumacher and Vips soon broke away as the battle for third saw Giuliano Raucci and Diego Bertonelli exchange places. The field was soon brought to a crawl though as a safety car was called after only three laps.
Devlin DeFrancesco, taking time out from British F4 had started eighth and gained two places off the line. Sadly for him this proved to be short lived as Kevin Kratz and himself were forced to the sidelines.
With 14 minutes left on the clock the got back underway with Schumacher and Vips once again building a gap to their rivals. Further back, championship leader Marcos Siebert and yesterday’s race winner, Raul Guzman occupied fifth and sixth. Both were stuck behind Betonelli, unable to pass easily on the winding Vallelunga circuit.
The one driver on the move though was Artem Petrov. Fresh from collecting his first ever podium in race one, the Russian was already into the points with five minutes to go. Having disposed of Juan Manuel Correa, he set his sights on seventh place Kush Maini.
The Indian had started fourth but fell back on the formation lap forcing him to drive through the field in order to reach his fourth place grid slot. He would drop back further after a poor start saw him mugged by Siebert and Guzman.
As the clock counted down, Schumacher took his fourth victory of the season, under a second from Vips, as Raucci rounded out the podium. Bertonelli eventually fell back on the track, clinging onto fourth with title leader Siebert behind.
Guzman had been another one to struggle in the dying stages, falling eight seconds back from Siebert in sixth. A final lap overtake saw Petrov take seventh with Maini, Sebastian Fernandez and Correa rounding out the top ten.
