Italian F4: Cotty retains female trophy lead as Westcott takes two trophy wins
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- Jun 26
- 6 min read
In the third round of the Italian F4 season at Monza, Emily Cotty took one Female Trophy win to maintain her lead in the class, as Payton Westcott stood on the top of the podium twice to reduce the gap heading into Mugello.
Amidst a chaotic weekend at Monza, R-ace GP's Emily Cotty was able to remain on top of the Female Trophy standings ahead of VAR's Payton Westcott, who took top honours in the Female Trophy in the first two races of the weekend. Sharing the podium with them in all three races was Maffi Racing's Kornelia Olkucka, who made steady progress in her maiden season in Italian F4.
With Monza having a bigger capacity compared to previous rounds, the usual three race format, meaning every driver who entered the weekend would race in all three races of the weekend.
As the calendar headed to Monza, things proved to be difficult for all three drivers, as in the collective tests on Thursday, only Westcott was able to reach the top 30, as Cotty and Olkucka struggled to find pace in the early stages of the weekend.
On Friday, the situation remained similar in the two practice sessions, as Westcott hung around the overall top 30 on the timing sheets and established herself as the fastest of the three female drivers heading into qualifying later that same day.
In the first qualifying session, Westcott set the 31st best time, whilst Cotty was down in 35th and Olkucka in 38th. However, in the second round of qualifying, Cotty found valuable pace which saw her set the 29th fastest time, two places higher than Westcott and eight ahead of Olkucka.
"It was definitely a learning curve," Cotty said following qualifying. "We improved by finding and fixing some of the issues we had with the car in qualifying, but we still got some more that we need to fix. Apart from that, we are improving and ready to push in the races.
Race 1
In the first race of the weekend, Prema's Sebastian Wheldon started on pole, whilst Westcott started 33rd after incurring a two-place penalty for a collision during FP2, putting her one row ahead of Cotty in 35th and one more row ahead of Olkucka in 37th.
At the start, Cotty gained three places and put herself near the top 30 when a collision between Enea Frey, Aleksander Ruta and Alex Powell brought out the safety car, neutralizing the race. Just before the race was fully neutralized, Francesco Coppola, Bart Harrison and Maksimilian Popov all hit trouble, therefore promoting Cotty to 29th as the field bunched up.
With around 19 minutes remaining on the clock, the race resumed as Oleksandr Bondarev, who had taken the lead at the start, led the field for the first restart, but just two laps later the Ukrainian spun from the lead at the Ascari chicane, bringing out the second safety car of the race.
As the field scrambled to avoid Bondarev, Cotty gained two positions before the safety car came out on track. On the second restart, Cotty took advantage of Maxim Rehm and Kirill Kutskov pitting to get herself up in the top 25 and overtaking Phil Colin Strenge for 24th at the end of the lap.
Just as Cotty was overtaken by Bondarev, the third safety car of the race came out on track as Elia Weiss was spun at the first chicane and was stuck in the gravel in Turn 2.
With four minutes left on the clock, the race resumed with Wheldon leading the field, but was overtaken by Gabriel Gomez around the outside of Turn 4 and dropped to second. Elsewhere in the field, Cotty remained near the top 25, but was overtaken by Westcott with two laps to go, who jumped to 23rd as the checkered flag waved.
In the end, Wheldon won ahead of Gomez and Kean Nakamura-Berta, as the aforementioned Westcott took Female Trophy honours in 22nd, ahead of Cotty in 23rd and Olkucka in 30th.
Speaking to us following the race, Cotty said: "We had a quite good start off the line, we gained I think ten places, but after that we struggled a lot with balance and straight line speed and we are hoping to improve in the next race."
Elsewhere in the paddock, Olkucka said: "The start was quite okay, there were a lot of safety cars, but during the race I spun because one of the Prema cars at Ascari was in the gravel and because I didn't see anything because of the debris and I spun but then I quickly caught up with the rest of the field. It could've been better, but it was a nice race and I hope race two will be better."
Race 2
In race two, Emily Cotty was the highest-starting female in 28th, two places ahead of Westcott in 30th and nine ahead of Olkucka in 37th after grid penaties were applied to other drivers.
Following a delayed start because of Dante Vinci's car stopping after Curva Grande, Cotty gained two places at the start as the field scattered to avoid a collision between Jan Koller and David Walther at the first chicane.
At the end of the second lap, a collision between Popov, Salim Hanna and Bondarev at the final corner caused the safety car to come out. Following the ten-minute safety car period, Wheldon, who had taken the lead at the start from pole sitter Nakamura-Berta, led the field as they approached the first chicane.
While Wheldon held the lead, a collision between Cotty and Westcott at Turn 1 sent the American down the order, while the R-ace GP went into the pits to replace her front wing.
At the front, Nakamura-Berta took the lead in the closing stages to win of Gomez and Wheldon, while Westcott finished 26th as the highest-finishing female after overtaking Olkucka with five minutes left, as the Polish driver ended the race in 29th, one spot ahead of Cotty.
Following the race, Olkucka said: "The start was the same as race one, but for sure I was losing a bit down the straights because others were faster, but the safety cars saved me as it allowed me to catch up with the field. Overall I am quite happy, I thought I was third [in the female trophy] to be honest as I thought Emily [Cotty] and Payton [Westcott] were ahead of me, but it was just Payton so overall I'm quite happy."
Race 3
While Nakamura-Berta started on pole for the third race of the weekend, the three female drivers faced an uphill battle from the start as they all started outside of the top 30, as Westcott lined up 33rd on the grid, one place ahead of Cotty and five ahead of Olkucka.
Gaining four positions at the start, Cotty took advantage of a collision between Weiss and Andrea Dupe at Lesmo 1, whilst Bondarev, Nathanael Berreby and Popov all pitted to fix damage as the safety car came out on track.
On the restart, with 16 minutes to go, Gomez and Marcus Saeter went off in the gravel at Lesmo 1, but the race remained green until a spin by Bondarev six minutes later saw the race neutralized for the second time.
Following Dante Vinci's crash on the exit of Variante Roggia on the restart, the race resumed with one lap remaining, with Newman Chi, who took the lead on the previous restart, leading the field as they began the final lap.
As Chi pulled away to take his maiden series win ahead of Luka Sammalisto and Bart Harrison, Nakamura-Berta and Wheldon both went off-track at the first chicane and fell out of the points. Elsewhere in the field, Cotty finished 24th as the highest-finishing female, ahead of Westcott in 25th and Olkucka in 27th.
Following her Female Trophy win, Cotty said: "We had a very good start, we made up lots of places and then we had quite a few safety cars, which made it quite hard to make any progress in the race and by the end we were struggling with straight line speed, but hopefully we can take what we learned from this weekend and improve into the next weekend."
Having taken two Female Trophy wins home, Westcott reflected on the weekend saying: "The first two races went quite okay, unluckily I had an incident in the second race but I was up five spots in the first two laps until that incident so I believe that I did quite well and I was showing a lot of improvement. However, the third race unfortunately wasn't as good as the previous two, but other than that I learned a lot this weekend and I'm very proud of what I've learned."
Finishing third in the Female Trophy was a rollercoaster ride for Olkucka, who recovered from a puncture in the early stages to finish with the main group of cars as the race ended.
"It was the same as race one," Olkucka said. "But before the first safety car was deployed I got a puncture because somebody hit me from behind. The restarts were very hard because you need to know when they're going to start, and at one point I was second at one stage but I didn't know that as my radio wasn't working. I'm happy that I got another podium by delivering what I wanted and my mechanic Hugo got the trophy for the work that he did."
