Just like yesterday, it was a cold grey day for the Italian eV-Prix, taking place at Imola for the first time ever. But the weather couldn't take away from the fact that a cracking race was in store, as Steven Kasami starts on pole for K8ley. As expected, majority of the field - 18 to be exact - went for the soft tyres, including the top 4. Behind them however, van Snelheid went very left field with hard tyres, a strategy only Agostino copied. That left 6 drivers, Maxwell, Davies, Yoshida, Haugland, Garcia and Nakumaya, on mediums.
A good start from Kasami meant he held off Ellington as the field flew into the first chicane at turn 2, the top 4 holding position. Behind, Zozulya put a bullish move on Vocquelin which allowed Hudson, who had already passed Thunder, through as well. An opportunistic move from Davies later on at the chicane on top of the circuit saw him slide past Maxwell - however, quickly they and van Snelheid were passed by Cesar, Zozulya and Hudson, with the Arrow falling back even further afterwards. Up front, Einarsson made a mistake towards the end of lap 2 while following Ellington, allowing Klien through into 3rd. Ellington was on the back of Kasami now, but couldn't get past easily and Klien closed right up to him. The Briton finally got the move done into turn 2 but Klien folllowed through as well and a late move into the hairpin at turn 7 saw him take the lead. Cesar was closing in fast behind, dispatching of Einarsson, while Hudson and Zozulya had a brief scrap where the Lada emerged victorious. Zvironas was another making up time as he overtook Domenicalli and Zhao to follow his teammate. On the flipside, Davies and Maxwell were down to 13th and 15th by lap 7, van Snelheid meanwhile barely staying in the top 20. As soft runners started to reach the end of their tyre life, some mistakes crept in - Ellington locked up at turn 2 and ran over the gravel trap, dropping behind Kasami and Cesar. A lap later, Vocquelin spun at turn 5 and lost places to both Fusions and Zhao. They all eventually headed to the pits on lap 10, Klien still leading ahead of Kasami and Cesar. Davies was promoted to 6th, splitting Einarsson and Hudson, and Maxwell was up to 10th, between the two Fusions. They didn't stay there long though, with their pit stop due a few laps later. In the meantime, an aggressive move from Zhao on Zvironas at the penultimate corner saw the Arrow gain a place and Zvironas lose out to Vocquelin as well. He wasn't the only red car in trouble, as Cesar struggled to warm his tyres and lost out to Ellington. The medium shod drivers pitted on lap 15 for their only stop, dropping Davies and Maxwell to 18th and 20th, the other 4 right to the back. Now closing in on Kasami, Ellington put pressure on the K8ley and he snapped on lap 17, almost spinning at turn 9. He managed to save the spin, but lost out to Ellington and Cesar. Just behind, Hudson was showing great pace once again and stormed past Einarsson on the main straight for 5th place. 2 laps later, he was past Kasami and looking at 3rd, while Zozulya also made his way past Einarsson. But on lap 20, the race was thrown onto its head. Cesar was lapping Nakumaya, who was channeling Michiko's spirit by running last, into turn 7, but as he moved across in front of the Japanese driver, the latter locked up and crashed into the Maserati. Thunder spun off there as well a while later in sympathy and a safety car had to be called out - just as the soft drivers had to pit. Once they were allowed in, Davies, van Snelheid and Maxwell were promoted into the top 3, ahead of Agostino, Haugland, Yoshida and Garica. Only then did Klien, Ellington, Hudson and Kasami follow, with Zozulya, Einarsson, Zhao and Vocquelin behind. The race restarted on lap 23 and Agostino had no grip on his hard tyres, causing chaos as the 3 drivers behind scrambled around him. Among all the commotion, Klien picked up a lovely slipstream, squeezed through a Highwind sized gap and took 4th almost immediately on the restart. A few corners later, that was 3rd thanks to van Snelheid. Not everyone was finding it that easy though - Garcia and Agostino were easy pickings but Yoshida and Haugland put up stiffer challenges as Ellington found out. When trying to overtake, he ran wide and allowed Hudson through on lap 24, before on the other end of the grid McLaughlin's miserable weekend ended when he and Taylor tangled, requiring another safety car. It was back in on lap 26, and the race was back on. Yoshida nipped past Haugland on the restart, but once again both proved difficult for Hudson and co to pass. So to was Davies - Klien passed Maxwell but the Renault was driving his skin off to just about stay ahead. The man who was really enjoying things was Zozulya - he surprised Kasami at turn 4 and made up another place when Ellington again ran wide at turn 1 and dropped behind Kasami. Eventually Yoshida and Haugland were dispatched off, as was van Snelheid, but Maxwell proved just as difficult - it took Hudson, Zozulya and Kasami until the penultimate lap to force a mistake from him and move up into 3rd-5th. By that time, the top 2 was out of reach, a top 2 where the positions had swapped with 2 laps left as Davies couldn't stop Klien from drawing alongside into turn 8 and forcing the Renault to concede. So when the chequered flag dropped, it was Klien who took a storming victory, his first since pre-Covid times and Highwind's first win ever. 2nd was still a phenomenal debut for Davies, as Hudson completed a great comeback with 3rd and the fastest lap. Zozulya was crafty to take a well deserved 4th, ahead of Kasami - 5th still incredible for K8ley. Maxwell salvaged 6th, Ellington was disgruntled with 7th and an exhausted van Snelheid just about took 8th, as he put in probably one of his best drives in the series to hold off others on shot hard tyres. 9th was a top comeback from Yoshida as Einarsson rounded out the points, denying Haugland at the end.
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