PREMA stays dominant at Spa-Francorchamps

PREMA Racing continued its outstanding 2022 Formula 4 campaign at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend. In round 3 of the Italian Championship, the team delivered three wins, two of which were completed by full podium lockouts. Andrea Kimi Antonelli was the star of the weekend at the Belgian venue, going from pole to win in the opening two races before posting victory number five for the year when team-mate Rafael Camara stalled from pole in race 3.

The Brazilian Ferrari Driver Academy member, who was coming from second place in race 1 and fourth place in race 2, was highly impressive in his recovery, as he sliced through the entire field and eventually nailed the final podium position to retain the overall and rookie championship lead.

Completing the podium in race 1 was the team’s other FDA-supported star, James Wharton, but the Australian didn’t find his way to the top 3 again. In race 2, he finished in fifth place, before ending up in the barriers in the opening stages of the third one.

Conrad Laursen also found the gravel and celebrated on the podium, in that order. The 16-year-old Dane did a solid job in qualifying, but P8 in race 1 led to an early off in race 2. At his final opportunity for the weekend, he delivered a swift start from P4, moving up to the second spot and managing it to achieve his best result of the year.

With three points finishes, Charlie Wurz stayed in the top-5 in points, not far from the drivers ahead. The Austrian went close to a podium finish twice, showing good potential at the tough Belgian track.

The five PREMA Racing Formula 4 drivers will stay on the road in the coming two weekends. They will move from Spa-Francorchamps to Zandvoort for the third round of the German Formula 4 Championship, before heading to round 4 of the Italian one at Vallelunga. 

#7 CHARLIE WURZ

“It has been a difficult weekend for us, but we managed to get some good points, with some fun battles and overtakes in the three races.”

Qualifying 1: P4

Qualifying 2: P13

Starting Grid Race 1: P4

Starting Grid Race 2: P13

Starting Grid Race 3: P5

Fastest lap: 2:22.735

Fastest lap: 2:23.686

Race 1: P4

Race 2: P7

Race 3: P4

#12 ANDREA KIMI ANTONELLI

“It’s been a great weekend as we scored three wins out of three, a result we just missed out on at Misano. We worked great with the team, and the car was highly competitive all the time. We will now be focusing on the next events at Zandvoort, which will be next weekend, and Vallelunga. It will be a challenging couple of weeks as my teammates are pretty quick as well, so I’ll only take a small break before going head down in preparation for Zandvoort.”

Qualifying 1: P1

Qualifying 2: P1

Starting Grid Race 1: P1

Starting Grid Race 2: P1

Starting Grid Race 3: P2

Fastest lap: 2:22.231

Fastest lap: 2:22.170

Race 1: P1

Race 2: P1

Race 3: P1

#13 JAMES WHARTON

“We got more points in the bag at Spa but still not what we are looking for. There’s a long way to go still in the championship, so let’s keep pushing to be better every weekend. A big thank  you to the team for the support.”

Qualifying 1: P2

Qualifying 2: P3

Starting Grid Race 1: P2

Starting Grid Race 2: P3

Starting Grid Race 3: P3

Fastest lap: 2:22.402

Fastest lap: 2:22.472

Race 1: P3

Race 2: P5

Race 3: DNF

#20 CONRAD LAURSEN

“Qualifying was a big improvement from the previous rounds, we just managed to put the lap together and started at the front, which had been the biggest issue, not having the speed in qualy but having it in the race. In race 2 we had a crash after a mediocre result in race 1, and obviously, it was not what I wanted, but we learned quite a bit from it. In race 3 everything finally planned out, and the results showed it in the end. We keep working for Zandvoort, the main goal is to be P1 so we have still some work to be done.” 

Qualifying 1: P7

Qualifying 2: P4

Starting Grid Race 1: P7

Starting Grid Race 2: P4

Starting Grid Race 3: P4

Fastest lap: 2:23.095

Fastest lap: 2:22.841

Race 1: P8

Race 2: DNF

Race 3: P2

#88 RAFAEL CAMARA

“We had a good weekend. It was a shame for the start on the third race, but I think we made a step there and for sure we will come back stronger for the next round. Congrats to the team for doing an amazing job.”

Qualifying 1: P3

Qualifying 2: P2

Starting Grid Race 1: P3

Starting Grid Race 2: P2

Starting Grid Race 3: P1

Fastest lap: 2:22.431

Fastest lap: 2:22.372

Race 1: P2

Race 2: P4

Race 3: P3

Source | Photo: PREMA Racing