Trident shines at Imola with rookies Toniolo and Šimek
The fifth round of the Italian Formula 4 championship at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola concluded with excellent performances from Dominik Šimek and, above all, Augustus Toniolo, who stood out for their consistency and ability to maneuver through all race dynamics.
As for Beco Bernoldi and Florentin Hattemer, a qualifying session affected by traffic and the red flag impacted the rest of the weekend for the Swiss driver, to the extent that he was eliminated from the final race for the first time. Bernoldi, qualified for the last race by the skin of his teeth, as 19th in his group. The son of racing driver Enrique achieved his best race result of the weekend, 19th, in the second race between Group A and Group B.
Toniolo and Šimek demonstrated from the start that they had strong cards to play. The former finished seventh in the first qualifying heat, while the latter finished 12th. In the races, Toniolo never dropped out of the top ten, taking sixth place in the race between Group A and Group B. In Šimek's case, it's worth highlighting his remarkable comeback in the final, where he climbed the standings to finish 11th.
The next round of the season is scheduled for the Misano circuit on the weekend of September 20th.
Dominik Šimek: "In qualifying, I made a track positioning mistake, which put us in the midfield for the first two races. In race 1, I managed to fight a bit forward for P12, but then I received a penalty for not slowing down with double yellows. Still, I ended up in P15 because of other drivers' penalties; on Sunday morning, I struggled a bit with the car, but for the final we made a very good change at the set-up, and this allowed me to gain 13 places clinching the rookie podium."
Beco Bernoldi: "I was expecting much more from the weekend. I didn't have much pace compared to the test days, and in fact we have been struggling for the whole weekend. We'll come back stronger in Misano."
Augustus Toniolo: "This weekend has represented a big improvement from Mugello, with a much better performance in all areas especially by my side, because the team has always done a great work. My starts were very good, and in all the races we were always there. Let's try to do even better in Misano!"
Florentin Hattemer: "We had a very good potential for the weekend, with a very good pace, but we couldn't show it. In qualifying we got really unlucky with the red flag, and traffic prevented us from putting in a good lap. Especially at Imola, starting from the back is not an easy task. Race 1 was a bit tricky, and also the second one was pretty messy; I know in Misano we can fight back at the front, so I am looking forward to it."