James Wharton picked up two wins on the weekend.
Italian F4 Championship
James Wharton turned in his best-ever set of results in the Italian F4 Championship over the weekend, picking up two wins and a podium in the third round of the season.
It was a dominant run at the famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the Victorian as he grabbed pole positions for the first two races and converted each to his first and second race wins of the 2023 season.
Although he led from lights to flag in both races, Wharton was made to work for his wins as he held off Maltese Zachary David by seven tenths in the first race before beating Polish driver Kacper Sztuka by half that in the second race – his fastest lap honours helping him to a tight victory.
Taking out the third and final race of the round was American Ugo Ugochukwu, who comfortably beat David and Wharton across the line after Sztuka and championship leader Arvid Lindblad made contact late in the race.
While Wharton had a memorable weekend behind the wheel, it was a difficult outing for the other two Aussies in Gianmarco Pradel and Jack Beeton.
Out of the two, Pradel was the only one to score points during the three races with a P9 in race two in between a P29 and P20 finish.
Unfortunately for Beeton, he suffered a less enjoyable outing as he picked up one official finish – a P28 in race one – before being disqualified for race two and excluded from race three.
The Italian F4 Championship will continue late next month with round four to run at Monza Circuit on 23-25 June.
NTT IndyCar Series
Will Power has endured a difficult weekend in the famous Indycar 500 having finished 23rd.
The Queenslander put in a good shift throughout the iconic race and gave it his all, however he was unable to claim any success as he finished nine spots lower than his 12th place start.
Power even led for a lap, but it wasn’t enough as he just couldn’t find the same rhythm that had seen him win the iconic race before.
It was a marginally better day for Power’s Team Penske teammate and three-time Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin, with the Kiwi finishing where he started in 14th.
Despite Power and McLaughlin being unable to come away with a good result, their teammate Josef Newgarden experienced a brilliant result, beating Marcus Ericsson on the last lap to secure his first career Indy 500 victory.
It’s back-to-back weekends for the NTT Indycar Series with the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix to take place on the Streets of Detroit this weekend.
USF2000
Lochie Hughes remained on top of the USF2000 Championship standings after a solid sixth place finish in the USF2000 Cooper Tires Freedom 75.
As the only event on the calendar as a single race weekend, the endurance race was made up of 75 laps around the famous Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and Hughes was consistently in the top half of the field all weekend.
Qualifying in fifth place, Hughes would have been hopeful of a strong result in his first-ever appearance at an oval circuit, however he struggled for much of the race and lost a place to title rival Simon Sikes.
Although Sikes got the better of Hughes and finished on the podium, Hughes’ sixth place finish was enough to keep him on top with four points now the difference between the two.
The series now turns its attention to the next two races, which will be run at the iconic Road America in Wisconsin on 17-18 June.
Keyword: Wharton stars in Spa