E4 set up its title decider next month at Monza next month as Chinese F4 crowned a new champion. Feeder Series reviews the action and the other big stories from the world of junior motorsport this weekend.

By Feeder Series

It was a quieter weekend in junior single-seaters, but not one without fanfare. Chinese F4 crowned its newest champion in Simon Zhang, who extended his lead to an unassailable 103 points despite not having the same outright pace advantage as on other weekends. E4’s penultimate round, meanwhile, set up a title showdown between Kean Nakamura-Berta and Gabriel Gomez. Still, Alex Powell, Reno Francot and Sebastian Wheldon have an outside shot at glory.

A number of other series had significant events of their own happen, which are enumerated here.

French F4’s penultimate round at Lédenon, which was not streamed featured rain and start-line chaos. The first race, won in dominant fashion by poleman Arthur Dorison, featured a rolling start because the back of the grid couldn’t see the start lights. A marshal waved the green flag for the final drivers on the reverse-grid race two, held in the wet and won by rookie Guillaume Bouzar. Rintaro Sato took a dominant win in race three despite starting ninth, while championship leader Alexandre Munoz’s two second places helped him increase his lead over Jules Roussel from 22 to 27 points.

Padborg Park hosted night races for Nordic 4 and Formula Nordic this weekend as part of a joint contest. In the former, Marius Kristiansen defeated title rival Sebastian Bach in all three races, winning the last two as Bach came second. Casper Nissen secured his maiden victory in race one. Melvin Kalousdian won races two and three on a reduced Formula Nordic grid, with Hampus Varis profiting and winning race one.

In SMP F4, Artem Severiukhin finally made up for his absence from the NRing in July by taking two wins, a second place and 75 points at Kazan. That haul was enough to put him ahead of Yaroslav Shevyrtalov, whose only top-three finish was third in race two in what was his weakest weekend yet.

Two junior single-seater graduates also secured endurance racing titles this weekend with wins at Silverstone. On Saturday, Hugo Schwarze, who raced in GB3 earlier this year with VRD Racing, wrapped up the Le Mans Cup LMP3 title alongside 2021 FR Europe runner-up Hadrien David. On Sunday, 2024 Eurocup-3 driver Theodor Jensen, who won the Asian Le Mans Series’ LMP3 drivers’ title over the winter, took the European Le Mans Series’ LMP3 title along with CLX Motorsport teammates Adrien Closmenil and Paul Lanchère.

Finally, on the other end of the racing spectrum, the FIA World Karting Championship took place at Kristianstad this weekend, and several youngsters affiliated with F1 junior teams shone. Mercedes juniors James Anagnostiadis and Kenzo Craigie finished fourth and fifth in the OK class final, won by 15-year-old Belgian Thibaut Ramaekers, while Ferrari junior Noah Baglin won the OK-Junior title. Williams junior Dean Hoogendoorn placed third in that class’s final, while Ilie Tristan Crisan, who joined the Alpine Academy earlier this year, was fifth.

Additional reporting by Perceval Wolff-Taffus

1. E4: Nakamura-Berta snatches points lead as Wheldon finds first series victory
2. Chinese F4: Simon Zhang secures championship title in Chengdu 

E4: Nakamura-Berta snatches points lead as Wheldon finds first series victory

The 2025 E4 season passed its halfway point this weekend with the second round at Mugello. Italian F4 points leader Kean Nakamura-Berta leapt to the top of the standings by 10 points in E4 as well despite being stripped of victory in race two, while Alex Powell and Sebastian Wheldon split the wins in race two and three. 

Track action kicked off on Friday with Nakamura-Berta dominating both sessions of qualifying to claim pole position for race one and two. Powell set the second-fastest lap in both sessions to earn pole for race three.

The drama started early in race one when the returning Tomass Štolcermanis, set to start seventh, stalled on the formation lap and had to start from pit lane. The safety car was then deployed after just a few corners on lap one.

Guy Albag hit the left side of Teo Schropp’s car at the exit of Poggio Secco, but both continued on. Contact just behind them, however, caused debutant Mathilda Paatz to lose control of her single-seater and spin into the path of Emily Cotty and Payton Westcott, all of whose races ended at Materassi. 

The top four held their places on the opening lap, with Salim Hanna and then–points leader Gabriel Gomez moving up the order to fifth and sixth. Maksimilian Popov then passed Van Amersfoort Racing teammate Dante Vinci for third at the restart on lap five. The race remained green until the 12th lap, when Prema Racing’s Zhenrui Chi made contact with the rear of Reno Francot’s car as the Dutchman attempted a pass at Arrabbiata 1. Both drivers’ races ended in the gravel.

Only a local yellow flag was displayed. After it was cleared, Hanna passed Vinci for fourth down the main straight entering the final lap as Nakamura-Berta, Powell and Popov took the podium places. 

Race two was far more straightforward, at least on track. Nakamura-Berta sailed to provisional victory, leading Powell and Francot from lights to flag, but a five-second post-race penalty for track limits demoted Nakamura-Berta to second, promoting Powell to first. 

The battle for third was more hotly contested. On the first lap, Gomez once again made his way up the order, pulling off three overtakes to claim fourth by the time the pack had reached Turn 5. The Brasília native later lost the position to Salim Hanna, who passed him at San Donato on lap 11. 

A damp track met the grid on Sunday morning for race three, which started behind the safety car. Powell, Nakamura-Berta and Wheldon started from first, second and third respectively. As the pack was preparing to reach racing speeds, an incident between Albag and Westcott brought out a local yellow flag and earned the Israeli driver a 25-second penalty.

The safety car made its second appearance on lap nine, when an attempted overtake by Andrija Kostić for eighth sent Andrea Dupé into the gravel and out of the race. At the restart on lap 11, Sebastian Wheldon executed a stunning double overtake on Nakamura-Berta and Powell between Turn 1 and 2 to take the lead of the race as Gomez passed Hanna for fifth place. While Gomez did not advance further, Nakamura-Berta crucially took a trip through the gravel later that lap, dropping to fourth behind Francot, as Wheldon led Powell home. 

Report by Francesca Brusa

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 1:48.978	Alex Powell, +0.192s	Dante Vinci, +0.224s
Qualifying 2	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 1:48.424	Alex Powell, +0.099s	Reno Francot, +0.317s
Race 1 (15 laps)	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 32:55.559	Alex Powell, +0.983s	Maksimilian Popov, +4.363s
Race 2 (18 laps)	Alex Powell, 33:30.121	Kean Nakamura-Berta, +4.062s	Reno Francot, +6.977s
Race 3 (15 laps)	Sebastian Wheldon, 32:24.929	Alex Powell, +2.672s	Reno Francot, +3.441s

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Rookies
P1	Kean Nakamura-Berta, 106	Prema Racing, 197	Oleksandr Bondarev, 105
P2	Gabriel Gomez, 96	US Racing, 136	Salim Hanna, 88
P3	Alex Powell, 75	R-ace GP, 76	Aleksander Ruta, 85
P4	Reno Francot, 73	PHM Racing, 73	Dante Vinci, 78
P5	Sebastian Wheldon, 71	Van Amersfoort Racing, 49	Zhenrui Chi, 59
P6	Salim Hanna, 33	Jenzer Motorsport, 9	Bader Al Sulaiti, 27
P7	Kabir Anurag, 30	AKM Motorsport, 6	Ludovico Busso, 24
P8	Maksimilian Popov, 27	Real Racing, 0	Abdullah Kamel, 22
P9	Oleksandr Bondarev, 24	Viola Formula Racing, 0	Andy Consani, 22
P10	Dante Vinci, 17	Cram Motorsport, 0	Guy Albag, 16

Read the previous round’s report here.

Chinese F4: Simon Zhang secures championship title in Chengdu 

With a 103-point lead and only 100 points left this season, Simon Zhang took the Chinese F4 championship title this weekend in Chengdu. Zhang is the first driver since Gerrard Xie in 2022 to have won the championship before the season finale.

In the first qualifying session, Chen Sicong took pole with a lap time of 1:22.046, a time 0.186 seconds faster than Chan’s best. Ethan Ho set the third-fastest lap time with a 1:22.377, while Zhang qualified fifth. In the second qualifying session, Chan took pole for the third time this season, setting a lap time of 1:21.705, 0.147s faster than Chen’s time. Dai Yuhao rounded out the top three as Zhang qualified fourth. 

In race one, Chen took his first win this season by converting pole to victory, finishing 1.377s ahead of Chan. Chen maintained his lead at both safety car restarts, with the first safety car being brought out after Wang Yi stopped on track on lap one and the second triggered by a multi-car incident shortly after the first safety car period.

Starting from fifth, Zhang had overtaken Ho and Cheng Meng to run third by the end of lap one. He eventually finished there on track but received a 10-second penalty for unsafely rejoining the track, dropping him down to sixth. 

Jing Zefeng started on reverse-grid pole for race two and maintained the lead at the start. At the end of the first lap, Shi Wei and Cheng collided at Turn 16, bringing out the safety car. 

Zhang got a good launch at the restart, overtaking Yu Yan and Liu Binghong for third, and quickly began chasing down Dai and Jing for the lead. Zhang managed to overtake Dai at Turn 18 and took the lead of the race from Jing on the following lap at Turn 1. From there, he won the race with a 5.257s gap over Dai, as Yu rounded out the top three. 

Chan started on pole for race three but quickly lost first place to Chen at the start. Zhang, starting fifth, made his way up to third and gained second at Turn 6 as Chan went wide.

A collision between Liu Taiji and Zhou Yiran brought out the safety car with only eight minutes left. It was withdrawn with one minute and one lap left, and Zhang snatched the lead from Chen at the start-finish straight on the last lap. Chen took second as Dai completed the podium.   

Marcus Cheong started on reverse-grid pole for the final race. Chan made up two places at the start to take third and grabbed second from Ho after a safety car period for Tsang Wai Yip’s stopped car. The next lap, Zhang emerged in front from a battle for third involving him, Ho, Jing, Chen and Wang Yuzhe.

Just as that battle resolved itself, Chan overtook Cheong for first at Turn 13 and maintained the lead until the end for his first victory this season. Zhang was next, making a move down the inside of Cheong at Turn 1 a few minutes later to take second, with Chen following at Turn 16 the next lap. The champion-elect began chasing down Chan for the win, but he narrowly missed out by 0.576s as Chen rounded out the podium. 

Having secured the title, Zhang heads into the season finale with 334 points. Chan’s second-place finish in race one and win in race four vault him to second in the standings with 231 points, while Dai rounds out the top three with 207. 

Report by Kaylene Lau

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Chen Sicong, 1:22.046	Kimi Chan, +0.186s	Ethan Ho, +0.331s
Qualifying 2	Kimi Chan, 1:21.705	Chen Sicong, +0.147s	Dai Yuhao, +0.602s
Race 1 (18 laps)	Chen Sicong, 32:22.768	Kimi Chan, +1.377s	Ethan Ho, +8.176s
Race 2 (21 laps)	Simon Zhang, 32:08.362	Dai Yuhao, +5.257s	Yu Yan, +18.778s
Race 3 (19 laps)	Simon Zhang, 31:26.419	Chen Sicong, +2.581s	Dai Yuhao, +3.023s
Race 4 (20 laps)	Kimi Chan, 32:38.046	Simon Zhang, +0.576s	Chen Sicong, +1.200s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Simon Zhang, 334	ACM Geeke Racing, 340
P2	Kimi Chan, 231	Champ Motorsport, 291
P3	Dai Yuhao, 207	Black Blade Racing, 253
P4	Chen Sicong, 165	ONE Motorsports, 213
P5	Andrei Dubynin, 134	Venom Motorsport, 169
P6	Ethan Ho, 103	Apollo RFN Racing Team by Blackjack, 150
P7	Wang Yuzhe, 85	Team KRC, 103
P8	Yu Yan, 63	Black Blade GP, 62
P9	Wang Yi, 60	GYT Racing, 19
P10	Cheng Meng, 55	Pointer Racing, 7

Read the previous round’s report here.

Header photo credit: Federico Basile