Tomas Stolzermanis | Photo: “F4 SEA”
Latvian racing driver Tomas Štolcermanis won the seventh place “Formula 4” on Sunday at the Mizano circuit (F4) in the third race of the first stage of the Italian championship, but he was eighth in the stage standings.
The 16-year-old pilot of the “Prema” team, Stolcermanis, started in the third race as 12th from the sixth row, dropping down in the first lap. After the first safety car, Stolcermanis recovered a couple of positions and entered the top ten 20 minutes before the end of the race, but five minutes later he was already ninth.
After the next safety car, the Latvian racing driver started the fight for the eighth position and after several attempts of overtaking maneuvers in the 12th lap, he won it. When the safety car came on the track for the third time during the race, Stolzermanis was already seventh, but in the closing couple of laps he threatened the sixth position of Australian Gianmarco Pradel (US Racing).
Three of Stolzerman's teammates finished in the top three – Briton Freddie Slater was also unbeaten in the third race, Alex Powell from the USA was second, and Keen Nakamura-Berta from Japan took third place. Among the debutants, Stolzermanis was third behind Powell and Nakamura-Bert. 37 pilots started in the third race.
It has already been reported that on Friday Štolcermanis showed the 10th and 15th fastest times in qualifying races, but on Saturday he was ninth and eighth in racing races. In the first race, the Latvian even showed the fastest lap time.
In February, Stolcermanis competed in the Abu Dhabi and Dubai stages of the F4 UAE championship as part of the Prema team.
The Italian F4 championship is scheduled for seven stages this season. This championship has served as a stepping stone on the road to Formula One (F-1) for racing drivers such as Lance Stroll, Lando Norris, Mick Schumacher and Guanyu Zhou.