Italian F4: Emily Cotty extends female trophy lead
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
At the second round of the Italian F4 season at Vallelunga, Emily Cotty secured a personal best of 16th while also extending her lead in the Female Trophy by taking three wins in the category over the weekend, also being the sole female to qualify for the final race of the weekend.
In six races contested this season, British-New Zealand driver Emily Cotty took top honours in the female trophy in every race she finished and currently leads the class standings by a crushing 49 points over Payton Westcott and 64 from Kornelia Olkucka.
Picking up from where she left off at Misano, Cotty set the 20th best time in the only collective test of the weekend on Thursday, as Westcott was 26th and Olkucka was 39th. Following that, the drivers were split up into two groups for the remaining practice sessions. Cotty was the sole female in "Serie 1", whilst Westcott and Olkucka both were in "Serie 2".
In "Serie 1", Cotty set the 13th fastest time in the first session, before she was moved to "Serie 2" ahead of the second session, where she set the 15th fastest time. On the other side of the pit lane, Westcott was 15th and 13th in her two session, as Olkucka was 20th in both.
As 40 cars were entered for the weekend, the four-race format from Misano returned, meaning all drivers were split in two groups ahead of qualifying, both decided by a draw. Cotty, Westcott and Olkucka all found themselves in the second group.
On Friday, the two qualifying sessions took place, albeit in wet conditions. The first session was topped by Prema Racing's Kean Nakamura-Berta, as he set a 1'49.658 in the treacherous conditions, beating Emanuele Olivieri and Maxim Rehm by over half a second.
The second session, commenced just ten minutes later, and it proved to be the best session to be in as the track dried up quickly towards the end. However, only two drivers decided to gamble on slick tyres to secure a fast time at the end, in R-ace GP's Emily Cotty and Maffi Racing's Kornelia Olkucka.
As the second session neared its end and conditions began to improve, David Cosma Cristofor set a
1'45.127 just before the red flags were thrown out for Olkucka, who had gone off whilst trying to deal with the slick tyres. With the session not restarting, it meant the Romanian took pole for both races two and three, as Cotty was left frustrated after a possible surprise pole had slipped out of her hands.
After both qualifying sessions, a grid was drawn, with the fastest driver from the two qualifying sessions taking pole, the fastest from the other session taking second, second-fastest in the former lining up third and so on until 40th. 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. Emily Cotty and Payton Westcott both were in Group B, while Kornelia Olkucka was in Group C.
Race 1
In the first race, Group B faced off against C, meaning Nakamura-Berta started on pole ahead of Luka Sammalisto and Tomass Stolcermanis, as Olkucka lined up 24th.
While Nakamura-Berta had a great launch and pulled away from the field, Stolcermanis immediately began attacking Sammalisto for second, which he would get half a lap into the opening race of the weekend. Behind them, Aleksander Ruta and Kabir Anurag made contact at the hairpin, causing Ruta's front wing to detach from the nose cone, whilst Anurag's rear wing broke and was forced to go to the pits.
In the meantime, Olkucka made her way up to 20th by taking advantage of a collision between Emir Tanju and Bart Harrison, that put the latter out of the race. However, Olkucka was later hit by another driver and spun off into the gravel at the exit of Cimini 2, causing the safety car to be called out on track on lap six.
On the restart with 12 minutes left, Nakamura-Berta once again pulled away from the field, while Newman Chi overtook Kirill Kutskov around the outside of Soratte for tenth.
The last ten minutes of the race were largely incident-free, until Luka Sammalisto went on the grass while braking for Tornantino and crashed into the wall, causing the race to be ended under safety car conditions. Nakamura-Berta won over Tomass Stolcermanis and Gabriel Gomez, as Salim Hanna was the top rookie of the race.
Race 2
In race two, Group A went up against Group B, meaning Cosma-Cristofor started on pole alongside Nakamura-Berta and Emanuele Olivieri. Emily Cotty started 13th, while Payton Westcott lined up 21st on the grid.
When the race began, the Japanese-Slovakian took the lead as the Romanian had a slow start and dropped outside of the top five. However, the race was soon neutralized as Elia Luis Weiss and David Walther collided at Turn 2, putting the Dane out of the race as he was stuck in the gravel.
The race restarted with 18 minutes left with Nakamura-Berta once again establishing a big lead over the pack, as Stolcermanis aggressively overtook Olivieri for third, forcing the Italian wide at Cimini 1 and allowing Gabriel Gomez to go up to fourth.
One lap later, Westcott was overtaken by both Weiss and Phil Colin Strenge and fell down to 24th, but quickly repassed the former to retain 23rd, which then became 22nd when Enea Frey retired from the race not long after.
At the front meanwhile, Kean Nakamura-Berta held off Sebastian Wheldon after a race-long battle for the lead to take his fifth win in a row ahead of the American and Gabriel Gomez. Behind them, Emily Cotty rebounded from a bad start to finish 16th, six places ahead of Payton Westcott in 22nd.
Race 3
In race three, Group A went up against Group C, with David Cosma-Cristofor once again starting first, but a bad start by the Romanian allowed Luka Sammalisto and Emanuele Olivieri to fight for the lead in the opening laps.
However, they both were overtaken by Sebastian Wheldon on lap two, and just on the following lap, the pair made contact, sending Sammalisto down the order and Olivieri falling to sixth and later getting a penalty due to the collision.
On the fourth lap, Francesco Coppola went wide on the exit of Campagnano and spun, tagging Phil Colin Strenge into a spin into oncoming traffic. The German was hit by Emir Tanju and Guy Albag, which put the latter two out of the race as Strenge and Coppola continued with front wing damage.
With the crash leaving a lot of debris on the track, the safety car was called out, during which Payton Westcott pitted to replace a broken front wing. The safety car period was lengthy, with the race only resuming with 10 minutes left on the clock.
Just like in race two, the last part of the race was incident-free, but this time it was the Prema of Sebastian Wheldon taking his second win of the season over Alex Powell and Maksimilian Popov. Olivieri went from sixth to third on the restart, but was demoted to 20th post-race for the aforementioned incident with Sammalisto. Emily Cotty finished 18th, whilst Payton Westcott crossed the line in 23rd.
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 and then by qualifying position. As only 36 cars could compete in the final, four cars could not qualify, including Payton Westcott and Kornelia Olkucka, whose best results of 22nd was unfortunately not enough to put them on the grid for race four.
Race 4
With the grid being set on points, Kean Nakamura-Berta started on pole, alongside Sebastian Wheldon on the front row as Tomass Stolcermanis and Gabriel Gomez started behind them on the second row. Elsewhere, Emily Cotty, the sole female on the grid, started 31st.
As Stolcermanis stalled at the start, Nakamura-Berta and Wheldon collided in Turn 2, giving the American a puncture and the Japanese-Slovakian a broken front wing, allowing US Racing's Gabriel Gomez to take the lead on the opening lap. However, action didn't stop there as on the exit of Turn 6, a four-car collision between Jan Koller, Dante Vinci, Andrija Kostic and Bader Al Sulaiti brought out the safety car at the end of the first lap, as the first three retired on the spot.
During the safety car period, Tomass Stolcermanis also retired, while a number of cars headed into the pits to replace front wing damage, elevating Emily Cotty to P21.
With 15 minutes left, the race resumed with Gomez maintaining the lead over Alex Powell and Emanuele Olivieri. However, the R-ace GP cars began to battle five laps after the restart and it was Olivieri who came out victorious as he took second from Powell at Cimini 1 with seven minutes left on the clock.
Ahead of them, Gabriel Gomez pulled away to take his maiden win in Italian F4 ahead of Olivieri and Salim Hanna, who overtook Powell around the outside of Cimini 1 on the last lap to take third. Elsewhere in the field, Emily Cotty battled with rear suspension damage, which caused her to lose several positions in the second half of the race, to cap off the weekend with a 27th-place finish.
Despite a tough end to the weekend for Cotty, the British-New Zealand driver managed to extend her lead in the Female Trophy, while also achieving her best overall finish of the season to date with 16th in race two, which was also good enough for sixth in the rookie class.