James Wharton takes first F4 Italian victory in red-flagged Spa race

James Wharton led from pole to take his first victory of the Formula 4 Italian season at Spa-Francorchamps.

James Wharton leads the Italian F4 field at Spa-Francorchamps. (ACI Sport)

The Australian has been a front-runner in the series but so far unable to convert his pace into a race victory, taking a dominant win in the red-flagged weekend opener.

A crash between Victoria Blokhina and Guido Luchetti brought the race to a halt with both cars destroyed in a scary collision.

Wharton led away confidently at the restart, with a battle for the podium emerging behind him between Brand Badoer and Zachary David. David passed Badoer for second at Les Combes after pulling out of the slipstream, with Badoer later passed by McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu in the closing laps.

A late collission between Davide Larini and Ruiqi Liu ended the race under a second red-flag, with Badoer moving up to the final step of the podium on countback.

Brando Badoer, James Wharton, and Zachary David on the podium in Spa. (ACI Sport)

“It was not the race that I wanted to win, being my first win of the Italina F.4, but it is still a win,” said Wharton after his first victory.

“I will still take it, but we have two more races to do it properly.”

“I’m quite happy with the pace, I know I can go forward again and hopefully get gap so I don’t have to defend it the next races as well.”

“I worked so hard for this moment, finally it is done now, I can get away from that and start moving forward.”

“I am here to win the championship, so it is still a long way to go.”

Wharton is fourth in the standings, with Arvid Lindblad maintaining his lead of the championship after finishing fifth.

The Italian Formula 4 field returns for two further races on Sunday, with race two at 6.30pm (AEST).

2023 Italian F4 Championship - Spa Race 1

1. James Wharton (AUS)

2. Zachary David

3. Brando Badoer

4. Ugo Ugochukwu

5. Arvid Lindblad

6. Kacper Sztuka

7. Tuukka Taponen

8. Akshay Bohra

9. Rashid Al Dhaheri

10. Matheus Ferreira

11. Valentin Kluss

12. Alfio Spina

13. Ariel Elkin

14. James Egozi

15. Ruiqi Liu

16. Nicola Lacorte

17. Ethan Ischer

18. Davide Larini

19. Bhirombhakdi Nandahvud

20. Ivan Domingues

21. Jack Beeton (AUS)

22. Matteo Quintarelli

23. Hwarang Kim

24. Frederik Lund

25. Tina Hausmann

26. Bianca Bustamante

27. Raphael Narac

28. Ismoilkhuja Akhmedkhodjaev

29. Gianmarco Pradel (AUS)

30. Guido Luchetti - DNF

31. Viktoria Blokhina - DNF