Italian F4: Emily Cotty wins Women's Trophy title

In the final round of the Italian F4 season at Misano, R-ace GP's Emily Cotty clinched the Women's Trophy title by 51 points over VAR's Payton Westcott. Kornelia Olkucka and Mathilda Paatz also collected Women's Trophy wins as the weekend featured a unique five-race format.

Ph: ACI Sport

Similar to the season opener, 44 cars fought for 36 spots for the final of the in the first round of the Italian F4 season at Misano. With an additional fifth race to make up for a cancelled race at Imola, Emily Cotty and Mathilda Paatz proved their worth by fighting for the top half positions in every race they competed in.

After all the practice sessions, the 44 drivers were split in two groups for qualifying, which was decided by a draw, in order to make the grid. Mathilda Paatz, Payton Westcott were in the first of the two, whilst Emily Cotty and Kornelia Olkucka found themselves in the second group.

In Q1, Sebastian Wheldon topped the timing sheets as Paatz set the 11th best time and Westcott was only able to set the 16th fastest lap. Not long after, Q2 took place and the US Racing of Gabriel Gomez was on top of the board, while Cotty was 15th and Olkucka was 22nd 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 44th. With this 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.

In a rare turn of events, Paatz, Cotty and Westcott all found themselves in Group B, whereas Olkucka was in Group A.

Race 1

Wheldon started on pole for race one, Paatz was 17th, Cotty 19th and Westcott 22nd. However, at the start all three lost positions as Paatz fell to 20th, Westcott 23rd and Cotty was down to last after stalling when the lights went out.

In the early stages, incidents for Artem Severiukhin and Marcus Saeter promoted all three, with Paatz remaining near the top 20 after being passed by Francesco Coppola, while Cotty made her way back to 24th after her early-race troubles, before then overtaking Westcott for 23rd on lap five.

Five laps later, Cotty went up to 22nd after Nathanael Berreby went wide at the final corner and stayed out of trouble to close in on Paatz, while Westcott passed Antonio Errigo and Phil Colin Strenge in the final stages to get up to 22nd.

Up ahead, Wheldon won ahead of Kean Nakamura-Berta and Maksimilian Popov, while Paatz closed out race one in 19th, Cotty in 20th and Westcott in 23rd after receiving a five-second penalty post-race.

Ph: ACI Sport

Race 2

Gabriel Gomez qualified on pole for the second race of the weekend, whilst Paatz started 18th, one row ahead of Cotty in 20th, Westcott in 22nd and Olkucka in 29th. However, Gomez didn't take the start as his car broke down on the formation lap, meaning everyone behind him moved up a place.

Wheldon led the field through the opening stages, as Cotty moved up to 20th, while Paatz and Westcott dropped to 22nd and 24th as Olkucka gained three places to move up to 26th.

Cotty then moved up to 18th after Oleksandr Savinkov and Andrija Kostic spun while battling ninth, but were able to resume the race without major damage.

At the front, Wheldon won for the second time in a row ahead of Zhenrui Chi and Nakamura-Berta, while Cotty was pushed back to 21st by Savinkov and Kostic, ahead of Paatz in 22nd, Westcott in 23rd and Olkucka in 27th.

Ph: ACI Sport

Race 3

For the final 'qualifying' race of the weekend, Gomez once again started on pole, as Olkucka started in 29th as the only representative of the women's trophy.

The Brazilian led the way at the start from Hanna, while Olkucka stayed out of trouble in the opening stages as a collision between Savinkov and Jan Koller saw the Czech driver spin and rejoin the race at the back of the field.

As the race went on, Niccolò Maccagnani, Teo Schropp and Oscar Repetto all hit trouble of their own, promoting Olkucka to 24th by the mid-point of the race. Despite Olkucka being overtaken by Koller and Schropp, the Polish driver remained in 24th after Strenge pitted to replace his front wing and Kabir Anurag retired in the pits following a collision with Emanuele Olivieri.

Up ahead, Gomez led from start to finish to take his fourth win of the season ahead of Hanna and Luka Sammalisto, whilst Olkucka held on to 24th until the end.

With seven drivers being eliminated for the 'final' race on Sunday morning due to Misano's limited capacity, all four women fell outside the top 36 scorers of the weekend based on their weekend-best results, thus meaning none of them qualified for the fourth race of the weekend.

Ph: ACI Sport

Race 5

Following the final, an additional race was held to make up for Imola's race two, in which that race's grid was used, meaning Gomez started on pole while Cotty was 16th, Westcott was 30th and Olkucka rounded out the field in 32nd.

Cotty had a difficult start, falling to 23rd in the opening stages, while Westcott dropped to 31st as Olkucka remained in 32nd. The R-ace GP then dropped to 24th by the mid-point of the race, in which the safety car was brought out on track due to a collision between Coppola and Berreby at Turn 2.

On the restart, Gomez led the way as he faced pressure from Nakamura-Berta who attacked him for the lead, but was kept at bay by the Brazilian. Behind them, Teo Schropp and Elia Weiss collided at the final corner, but were both able to continue albeit at the back of the grid.

After jumping to 22nd following the aforementioned crash between Schropp and Weiss, Cotty overtook two more cars to return in the top 20, as Westcott entered the top 25 with a handful of laps remaining.

Up ahead, Nakamura-Berta overtook Gomez on the final lap to take the win in the final race of the season, while Cotty finished 21st as the highest-finishing female but was promoted to 20th after post-race penalties. Westcott ended the race in 22nd, but was also moved up a place in the final results, whereas Olkucka capped off her sophomore year of Formula 4 competition in 26th.