American driver Juan Manuel Correa broke away to win the first Italian F4 Championship race at Mugello. The one-two result will be good news for Prema Powerteam who have been strong all weekend.
A clean start from Mick Schumacher saw him get the jump on second place Raul Guzman. The German used this to break away at the front with team mate Correa leading.
Over the first few laps, the field started to spread out with Guzman now holding up fourth place Marcos Siebert. The pair was initially chased by Joao Vieira and Giuliano Raucci, but they soon fell back.
As the Brazilian’s backed off in the mid part of the race, Juri Vips took the opportunity to close up behind. They weren’t the only inter-nation battle though, as Italian’s Simone Cunati held off Diego Bertonelli for eighth place as Devlin DeFrancesco closed in.
Correa consistently set quicker laps than Schumacher, proving he did have the speed to challenge the German. A poor day went from bad to worse for Mauricio Baiz as the outside championship contender got caught up in the midfield, dropping to the back and retiring.
As the race approached half distance Bertonelli was finally released from behind Cunati. He immediately set the fastest first sector of the race, looking to chase the battle for sixth.
Back at the front, Correa had now broken the tow of his team mate and became the first driver to dip below the 1 minute 48 second mark. He’d finish the race with the fastest lap.
After a race of watching Guzman’s gearbox, disaster struck Siebert with under 10 minutes to go as the yellow flags were brought out. The Argentine limped back to the pits to record his first non-points score of the season.
This left Raucci to stare at the back of the Venezuelan who was determined to hold onto his final podium position. In only a lap, Raucci was up to third, though his progress would be halted as he was unable to close up the nine second gap to Schumacher in 6 minutes.
As the race entered its climax, a queue was soon formed behind Cunati. The jostling behind allowed DeFrancesco to jump up to eighth as Vips fell back to ninth. Ye Yifei had been on course for a points finish but a final lap error, promoted Job van Uitert to tenth.
Correa crossed the line to claim his second win in a row after taking victory in the final race at Imola. Schumacher and Raucci would round out the podium in what was the Brazilian’s best result of the season.
Behind them, Guzman finished a lonely fourth from Vieira and the chasing Bertonelli. Cunati did hold on to seventh as DeFrancesco, Vips and van Uitert rounded out the top ten.
