MARCUS ARMSTRONG STARTS AS HE MEANS TO CONTINUE
Italian Formula 4 by Abarth:
MARCUS ARMSTRONG STARTS AS HE MEANS TO CONTINUE
A top qualifying performance stood Kiwi racing driver Marcus Armstrong in good stead at the opening round of the FIA Italian Formula 4 Championship, the Christchurch teen guiding his Formula 4 car home to fifth overall in a field of 28 in the first race of his debut season in the fiercely contested single-seater championship and backi8ng that with a podium in the second of three races..
“Not a bad weekend. Was lacking a little bit of lap time compared to the two drivers ahead of me, which made things quite tough, but the first two races were good and clean,” he said.
Armstrong ran in third place for much of race three and seemed set to record another podium position.
“Then Kush Maini tried to overtake me down the inside at one of the hairpins but he had snap oversteer and had nowhere to go but into me. It was a close few laps which I'm looking forward to watching on replay!”
Armstrong is philosophical about the outcome of the third race.
“Ultimately it was quite a good weekend, we have our sights on the championship.”
Championship information
The Italian Formula 4 championship has attracted 28 drivers from 17 different countries racing for 12 teams.
The cars used for the Italian championship all share a common chassis made by Tatuus, the company that supplies the chassis for the cars of the Toyota Racing Series. They run 1.4 litre turbocharged engines which develop slightly less power than TRS.
Race weekends have the drivers on the circuit for two 40 minute free practice sessions on the Friday, with two 15 minute qualifying sessions on the Saturday morning. The grid for the first race is based on best times from the first qualifying session; for the second race the grid is based on times from session two and for race three the grid is based on each driver’s second best qualifying time across both sessions.
All three races over the weekend carry points towards the championships, including the overall driver’s title, the rookie trophy, the women’s trophy and the teams’ trophy. In his debut Formula 4 year, Armstrong competes for outright and rookie trophy points. This weekend’s racing kicks off a busy year for the Christchurch teenager: he is racing in both the Italian and German F4 championships, a total of 14 race weekends between April and October.
The championships:
www.f4championship.com/ (Italy)
www.adac-motorsport.de/adac-formel-4/uk/rennen/ (Germany)
Race 1 top ten
Sebastian Fernandez
Artem Petrov
Juri Vips
Lorenzo Colombo
Marcus Armstrong
Job Van Uitert
Ian Rodriguez
Leonard Hogenboom
Leonardo Lorando
Kami Laliberte
Race 2 top ten
Sebastian Fernandez
Lorenzo Colombo
Marcus Armstrong
Juri Vips
Kami Laliberte
Felipe Drugovich
Job Van Uitert
Enzo Fittipaldi
Lirim Zendeli
Juan Manuel Correa
Race 3 top ten
Sebastian Fernandez
Lorenzo Colombo
Artem Petrov
Felipe Drugovich
Enzo Fittipaldi
Job Van Uitert
Ian Rodriguez
Lirim Zendeli
Kami Laliberte
Aldo Festante
Also
Marcus Armstrong 23rd
Points (top ten) after round one
1 Sebastian Fernandez 75
2 Lorenzo Colombo 48
3 Artem Petrov 33
4 Job Van Uitert 28
5 Juri Vips 27
6 Marcus Armstrong 25
7 Enzo Fittipaldi 21
8 Ian Rodriguez 14
9 Lirim Zendelli 12
10 Aldo Festante 4