First Italian F4 Championship Podium, at The Temple of Speed

Round three of the Italian F4 championship at Monza brought a strong overall performance with mixed results.

Following solid a performance in free practice, Q1 brought a rather disappointing P15, with Bart feeling that he could have done a better job of managing traffic in a congested and chaotic forty-car grid. Q2 was better with P10 and only four tenths off pole. His second fastest lap was good enough for P8 in race three.

Race one started well, with Bart moving from his P15 start to running inside the top ten after lap one. Unfortunately, he was taken off track on lap two as another car moved across as he went alongside to overtake. The resulting suspension damage caused retirement.

Race two saw another blistering start from Bart and from lap two, he was running in a solid P7 for most of the race. On the penultimate lap, he moved into P6 and was in the process of taking fifth place, when he was hit from behind by an over optimistic move from another driver. Another DNF was scant reward for such a strong and controlled drive.

Yet another excellent start in race three had Bart running in P5 after the second corner, a position which he held through three safety car restarts, ultimately taking third place and his first podium in the Italian championship. A very satisfying result in such a strong field.