Italian F4: Payton Westcott closes in on female trophy with two class wins
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- Jul 16
- 4 min read
In the fourth round of the Italian F4 season at Mugello, Payton Westcott took advantage of a consistent weekend as well as Emily Cotty's misfortune in the later stages of the weekend to take two female trophies home and close in on the R-ace GP driver's lead in the class.
Van Amersfoort Racing's Payton Westcott took two female trophies at Mugello, enabling her to close the gap to 12 points to R-ace GP's Emily Cotty, who took top honours in the female trophy in race one. On the podium with them was Maffi Racing's Kornelia Olkucka, who battled with an illness to finish all three races.
Unlike previous rounds, on-track action started on Friday, with both free practice sessions held in the morning and qualifying held late in the afternoon.
Following two difficult practice sessions, qualifying 1 began at 16:45 local time, in which Emily Cotty set the 25th best time, putting her in the mid-pack, nine places ahead of Payton Westcott in 34th and Kornelia Olkucka in 38th.
The second round of qualifying began at 17:10, and this time it was Payton Westcott who was the highest-placed female in 30th, as Emily Cotty faced a flat tire during the session and could only set the 36th best time, one place ahead of Kornelia Olkucka.
Race 1
In race one, Kean Nakamura-Berta started on pole and kept the lead at the start even with Gabriel Gomez' initial attacks, as Westcott moved up to 32nd and Olkucka to 35th behind them as Andrija Kostic and Marcus Saeter went off at Turn 3.
Three laps later, the safety car was brought out due to Guy Albag stopping on the side of the track at Turn 12 after his rear left tire came off following Arrabbiata 2. During the safety car period, David Cosma-Cristofor pitted to replace his broken front wing.
On the restart, Cotty passed both Teo Schropp and Elia Weiss, but was eventually passed by the latter with 12 minutes left and was sent back to 25th. However, just six minutes later a safety car came out for Andrea Dupe, who was stuck on the gravel at the final corner.
The race restarted with two laps to go, but on the restart Luca Viisoreanu and Oleksandr Savinkov collided at Turn 1, forcing the race to end under safety car conditions.
Nakamura-Berta took his seventh win of the season ahead of Gomez and Alex Powell, who took his first podium since Vallelunga. Cotty ended up 21st as the highest-placed female driver, while Westcott finished 28th and Olkucka 30th.
Following the first race of the weekend, Cotty said: "We had a good start, but I lost a few places due to my mistakes - but then I gained pretty much all of them back and after that it was just a race with dirty air. Pace was decent but the safety cars held us back quite a lot and we had a few racing laps at the end but a few were under yellow so it was quite difficult [to make up places]."
Race 2
Starting at 18:15 local time, Powell was on pole for race two and held the lead at the start as behind him, Cotty moved up to 32nd after passing Maksimilian Popov, Arthur Lorimier and Phil Colin Strenge at the start.
Despite the strong start, Cotty was unable to make progress as she struggled with the same set of tires she used in Q2 and was demoted to 34th before a crash between Elia Weiss, Luca Viisoreanu and Guy Albag brought out a lengthy safety car period as the inside barrier had to be repaired.
Having passed Westcott shortly before the safety car period, Cotty restarted the race in 31st on lap six and immediately overtook Strenge for 30th, as the German was also passed by Westcott on lap 12.
With three minutes left on the clock, Artem Severiukhin suffered a puncture in Turn 5 after contact with Cosma-Cristofor, enabling Westcott to jump up to 27th, whilst Cotty was unable to take full advantage of the collision ahead as she was involved in a crash with Nathanael Berreby - who took her out of the race.
The race ended under safety car conditions, with Powell taking his first win of the season ahead of Zhenrui Chi and Reno Francot. Westcott retained her 27th place finish, whilst Olkucka was promoted to 31st after post-race penalties and Cotty was classified in 34th despite not finishing the race.
Race 3
Before race three, it was revealed that Cotty's crash in race two had effectively ended her weekend as both the engine and gearbox weren't able to be repaired on time, whilst the tub of the car was cracked and as there weren't any spares available, the car was forced to withdraw from race three.
At the start, Powell held the lead as Francot jumped Nakamura-Berta for second, while Westcott held her 30th-place starting position on the opening lap as the damp conditions started to become a factor.
In the chaos that ensued, Emanuele Olivieri was forced to pit due to a puncture after contact with Enea Frey, which also forced the Swiss driver to pit for repairs. Cameras then turned to Sebastian Wheldon, who struggled for pace and fell out of the points as the race progressed.
As the race remained green from start to finish, Powell took his second win of the season in dominant fashion ahead of Francot and Nakamura-Berta. It was a difficult race for both Westcott and Olkucka, who rounded out the weekend with 29th- and 34th- place finishes as they struggled to find pace in the damp conditions.
