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A fantastic start by championship leader Gino Trappa was the key to victory in Race 3 at Slovakia Ring, the penultimate round of the F4 CEZ.

Andreas Lo Bue (Maffi Racing) and Javier Herrera (Jenzer Motorsport) lined up on the front row, with Teodor Borenstein (Maffi Racing) and Mathilda Paatz (Mathilda Racing) on row two, and Benett Gáspár (Zengö Motorsport) alongside Hady Mimassi (Renauer Motorsport) on row three.

At the start, Herrera shot into the lead, Mimassi slotted into second and Paatz once again made a strong getaway to move into third. Lo Bue fell from pole to fourth, with Borenstein in fifth.

Trappa made a sensational launch, climbing from 12th to sixth on the opening lap, making the most of the crucial and cautious early phase. He didn’t stop there, by the end of lap two he was already up to fourth. His championship rival Max Karhan, meanwhile, dropped from seventh to eighth.

Paatz then overtook Mimassi for second and looked set for another podium finish. Unfortunately, while defending from Mimassi down the main straight, the two made contact and Paatz suffered a right-rear puncture, while Mimassi lost his front wing.

With debris on track, the safety car was deployed on lap three. The order under yellow was: Herrera, Trappa, Kutskov, Borenstein, Lo Bue, Karhan, Cortes, Schranz and Němec rounding out the top ten.

When racing resumed, Trappa immediately went on the attack, but Herrera held firm. Further back, chaos broke out in the midfield. Nicolas Cortes, who had impressively climbed from 18th to seventh, was spun around in the traffic.

With ten minutes to go, Trappa finally pulled off a clean move on his teammate Herrera to snatch the lead, completing an incredible charge from 12th on the grid. Behind them, the battle for third was developing as Karhan attacked Kutskov and briefly got through, only for Kutskov to retake the place half a lap later. The two ran side by side down the straight and into Turn 1, allowing Borenstein to close right in. On the final lap, Karhan made another move stick, this time sealing third place.

At the flag, it was a Jenzer Motorsport 1-2-3, Trappa winning from Herrera and Karhan. Kutskov finished fourth ahead of teammate Borenstein. Mimassi was classified sixth, followed by David Gorčica in seventh, František Němec in eighth, Nicole Havrda in ninth and Nikolaj Dyrved taking the final point in tenth.

F4_Race 3 – Official

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