2026 E4 Championship: Kenzo Craigie is the champion—the title was decided on the final lap at Monza
The 2026 E4 Championship concluded at Monza with a nail-biting finale, in which the title was decided on the very last lap of Race 3. Heading into the season’s final round, Kenzo Craigie was the clear favorite to win the title and had solidified his position by winning Race 1. His championship hopes, however, suffered a sudden setback in Race 2 when, with the title all but secured, he was involved in a rear-end collision that forced him to retire. Sammalisto capitalized on the opportunity, finishing in second place and completely reopening the title race: the Finn had thus closed the gap to just eight points behind his rival, leaving the outcome to be decided in the final race.
The championship finale lived up to expectations, delivering a race full of overtaking, duels, and dramatic twists. Starting from eleventh position, Luka Sammalisto staged an extraordinary comeback, managing to work his way up through the pack to claim victory. Kenzo Craigie, on the other hand, faced a more challenging race, finding himself in fourth place during the decisive stages—a position that, at that moment, would have cost him the title by a mere two points.
The decisive factor was the teamwork within R-ace GP. Andy Consani, who was in third place at that point in the race, let his teammate pass, allowing him to gain the position needed to secure the championship. It was a decisive move that allowed Craigie to finish the season as the E4 Championship champion, despite the final victory claimed by his direct rival.
The third race of the weekend began with Andy Consani on pole position. However, his teammate Augustus Toniolo, a Brazilian driver for R-ace GP, got off to a better start when the lights went out, taking the lead. After being involved in incidents in both previous races, Toniolo tried to defend his lead against attacks from his rivals, sparking a particularly heated battle with Sammalisto, who had staged a comeback from tenth place.
At the same time, an intense battle unfolded between Craigie and Ludovico Busso, both behind the wheel of R-ace GP single-seaters. The duel culminated in contact during the most heated stages of the race. The Sicilian driver then lost ground in the closing stages, at the Prima Variante, during the restart following the Safety Car’s entry. The neutralization had been necessary to allow for the recovery of the car driven by Dean Pedersen, racing for CRAM Motorsport, who was forced to retire.
In the closing stages, Sammalisto managed to complete his comeback and cross the finish line first, ahead of Augustus Toniolo. Craigie took third place, a result good enough to celebrate his title win on the podium. Andy Consani finished fourth, ahead of Poland’s Alex Ruta of Van Amersfoort Racing.
Behind the top five was Iacopo Martinese, sixth overall and third in the Rookie standings. The US Racing driver, competing under the ACI Team Italia banner, capped off his best weekend of the season at Monza, highlighted by two overall podium finishes: second place in Race 1 and third in Race 2.
Seventh place went to Oleksandr Savinkov, racing for US Racing, followed by Ludovico Busso. The Sicilian, who had long been in contention for a podium finish, lost several positions due to a mistake in the closing stages. Ninth place went to Czech driver Dominik Simek of Trident Motorsport, while Australian Noah Killion, also racing for US Racing, rounded out the top ten.
Swiss driver Georgiy Zasov of Prema Racing finished eleventh, ahead of Thomas Bearman of Van Amersfoort Racing. Teo Borenstein of Jenzer Motorsport took thirteenth place, followed by Roman Kamyab of Prema Racing and Florentin Hattemer of Trident Motorsport, who rounded out the top fifteen.
