Italian F4: Emily Cotty and Payton Westcott reach final in Misano round

In a chaotic Italian F4 season opening round at Misano, both R-ace GP's Emily Cotty and VAR's Payton Westcott were able to advance to the final race of the weekend, and drove solidly to cap off a commendable first weekend in Italian F4. Kornelia Olkucka gained valuable experience as she kept her car clean in both her races.

Photo credits: ACI Sport

With 41 cars racing for 36 spots in the first round of the Italian F4 season at Misano, Emily Cotty and Payton Westcott made the most of a challenging weekend, taking valuable results when it was needed the most to beat five more experienced drivers to get in the final race of the weekend.

During the pre-event tests and practice sessions, Payton Westcott showed strong pace early on, taking the 23rd best time in the second test of the weekend and remained on par with her teammates in the early part of the weekend. Cotty and Maffi Racing's Kornelia Olkucka, meanwhile, gained experience around the Misano track as they aimed to make the best out of the season-opener.

After all the practice sessions, the 41 drivers were split in two groups for qualifying, which was decided by a draw, in order to make the grid. Payton Westcott and Emily Cotty were in the first of the two, whilst Kornelia Olkucka found herself in the second group.

In Q1, Salim Hanna topped the timing sheets as Westcott set the 11th best time and Cotty was only able to set the 16th fastest lap. Not long after, Q2 took place and the other Prema of Kean Nakamura-Berta was on top of the board, as Kornelia Olkucka was 20th at the end of the session.

Following both qualifying sessions, a grid was drawn, with the fastest driver from Q1 taking pole, the fastest in Q2 taking second, second-fastest in Q1 lining up third and so on until 41st. With this drawn grid in mind, the drivers were assigned a group based on their position. Group A was composed of the drivers who were classified first, fourth, seventh, etc; Group B for those who were second, fifth, eighth and so on; and finally Group C for those in third, sixth, ninth and so on.

With her 1:36.532, Payton Westcott was in Group A, whilst Emily Cotty was in Group B and Kornelia Olkucka was in Group C.

Representing Group C, Olkucka was happy to gain valuable experience in her first time in Italy: "It was my first qualifying session in Italy and it was completely different to what I was used to in CEZ but it was a learning experience and I'm very happy that I'm able to drive in this championship."

In race one, Group B went up against Group C, with Salim Hanna starting on pole alongside Sebastian Wheldon, as Emily Cotty started 21st and Kornelia Olkucka started 25th.

Just before the lights went out, Maxim Rehm jumped the start and took the lead as Salim Hanna slotted in second place ahead of Wheldon. Behind them, Kornelia Olkucka and Luca Viisoreanu hit trouble, with the former slowing down after bing hit on the opening lap, whilst the latter was spun by one of the Viola Formula cars.

As the race progressed, cameras turned to Gabriel Gomez, who briefly lost two positions to Oleksandr Bondarev and Tomass Stolcermanis, but regained both as Bondarev broke his front wing whilst trying to attack the Brazilian and also slowed down Stolcermanis before the flat-out section leading to Curvone.

Up ahead, Sebastian Wheldon overtook Salim Hanna and later Maxim Rehm to take the lead of the race as the German began falling down the order. At the same time, Kirill Kutskov made contact with Teo Schropp, breaking the former's front wing and the latter was forced to pit as he suffered a left rear puncture.

In the end, Sebastian Wheldon held on to win on his debut in Europe ahead of Salim Hanna and Gabriel Gomez. After overtaking teammate Guy Albag near the end, Emily Cotty was 17th as the highest female driver, while Kornelia Olkucka ended the first race of the weekend in 27th.

"The start was pretty okay," Olkucka explained. "But at some point somebody crashed into me and my rear-right tire was completely destroyed and I had to go to the pits to change it and then it was hard trying to catch the rest of the field but I finished the race and I'm very happy about it."

Photo credits: ACI Sport

For the second race of the weekend, Group A faced against Group B, which meant Kean Nakamura-Berta started on pole alongside Salim Hanna. Payton Westcott started 15th for her first race of the weekend, while Emily Cotty lined up 22nd on the grid.

Following an extra formation lap caused by Arthur Lorimier stopping on track, the race started with Nakamura-Berta keeping the lead while Hanna fell to third, behind the VAR of Maksimilian Popov. Just after the Rio complex, Emily Cotty and David Walther collided, putting both out of the race and forcing the safety car to come out on track.

On the restart, Elia Weiss spun before the final hairpin, which caused Payton Westcott, who ran as high as 15th, to take avoiding action and in doing so, there was contact with Luca Viisoreanu, putting the Romanian out of the race and triggering the safety car once again.

With 16 minutes to go, the race restarted with Nakamura-Berta still leading the pack while Alex Powell had a trip through the gravel and fell out of the top 10. Behind the leaders, Luka Sammalisto also encountered problems of his own, stopping at the side of the track just a lap later as he retired from the race.

In the closing stages, Tomass Stolcermanis moved up to second after a hard-fought battle with Maksimilian Popov in the final sector. Ahead of them, Kean Nakamura-Berta won race two ahead of Stolcermanis, who later was given a penalty, Popov and Emanuele Olivieri, who inherited the final spot on the podium post-race. Payton Westcott was the sole finishing female driver in 20th.

Photo credits: ACI Sport

In race three, held on Sunday morning, Group A faced against Group C. Kean Nakamura-Berta once again was on pole, this time joined by Sebastian Wheldon on the front row, as Payton Westcott started 19th and Kornelia Olkucka 26th.

The Japanese-Slovakian kept the lead at the start as Westcott suffered a puncture and retired from the race at the Quercia corner, bringing out the race's only safety car. On the restart, Nakamura-Berta stayed ahead of Wheldon while Kabir Anurag and Oleksandr Bondarev began battling for fifth.

Despite immense pressure from the Ukrainian, Anurag kept the position with a robust defence in the final sector to send Bondarev into the clutches of Zhenrui Chi with less than ten minutes to go.

Ahead of them, Emanuele Olivieri began catching Maksimilian Popov for third and after spending most of the final third behind the VAR driver, the Italian made his move around the outside at turn 1 to take the final step of the podium.

At the end, Kean Nakamura-Berta took the checkered flag first, ahead of Sebastian Wheldon and Emanuele Olivieri. Kornelia Olkucka was the only female driver to finish the race, in 26th position.

Following the third race, the grid for the final was set by the amount of points scored by the drivers in the three races, with the rest of the grid being set by best finish scored throughout the weekend. As only 36 cars could compete in the final, five cars could not qualify, including Kornelia Olkucka, whose best result of 26th in race three was unfortunately not enough to put her on the grid for race four.

Photo credits: ACI Sport

Before the final, Emily Cotty was optimistic of the weekend, aiming to make up ground despite having to recover from the back. "It's definitely been a learning curve, with lots of tough moments but we've recovered well in race one and hoping to do the same in race four."

The final race of the weekend was held at 19:20 local time and due to the format, Kean Nakamura-Berta started first, alongside Sebastian Wheldon on the front row. Behind them, Emily Cotty started 34th after serving a four-place grid penalty for her incident with Walther, just ahead of Payton Westcott, who started 35th.

At the start, Nakamura-Berta kept the lead as Wheldon fell to fourth and was overtaken by Maksimilian Popov and Salim Hanna before the first corner.

Even with a handful of cars taking to pit lane to repair damage, including Gabriel Gomez, the race remained green until the end, with Kean Nakamura-Berta taking his third win in a row, followed by Popov and Hanna, who rounded out the podium. Emily Cotty was the highest-placed female driver in 24th, two places higher than Payton Westcott in 26th.

As the weekend came to an end, Cotty was relieved to have finished the weekend on a good note despite a rocky beginning to the race: "It was a bit of a tough start, having to start on the dirty side of the track but we gained 10 places in the end, so it was a good recovery but we're still left wanting a bit more obviously. I thank the team for everything this weekend, the car has been mega and we'll try to do even better in the next few rounds."

The first round of the Italian F4 season was a promising one for both Emily Cotty and Payton Westcott, who were consistently in the top 20 throughout the weekend, while Kornelia Olkucka gained valuable experience as she kept her car clean in both races she contested.