SAMMALISTO STARTS 2025 WITH A BANG IN FWS PORTIMÃO. WESTWOOD DOMINATES IN MALTA

Luka kicked off his 2025 season with a great performance in the Formula Winter Series in Portugal. He worked very hard during the winter; therefore, he was perfectly fit when he approached his first race of the year.

His first qualifying with the new team brought a very good result, as he claimed P6 with a 1’45’’999 just a few tenths shy of the front row. Nonetheless, he managed to out-qualify his more experienced teammates.

He made a good start in Race 1 and kept P6. He defended remarkably well against the drivers behind, but he exceeded track limits too many times. That costed him a 5-second penalty. Luka was keen to make up for it and increased the pace. It’s always risky to overtake on the undulating Portimão circuit, but he managed to execute every overtake with calm and precision, until he was running P3. His 5-second penalty meant he was fighting for P4, maybe even for the podium. Unfortunately, the Safety Car came out with just a few laps to go with the entire field behind him. Inevitably, when he crossed the finish line, the penalty relegated him to an undeserved eleventh position.

Starting again from P6, he lost a place at the start of Race 2, but was able to regain the place by the end of lap 1. The first half of the race was freezer by the Safety Car, so tyres management was no longer a factor, and drivers could push to the flag. Luka just had to fend off the threat of Thomas Bearman, which he did superbly, and bring home a good P4 finish.

Race 3 started on a wet track. US Racing still opted for dry tyres, while the more conservative ones opted to immediately mount wet tyres. The race went underway after three lights went out, so it had to be red flagged. This gave the team the chance to switch to wet tyres, as the track wasn’t drying as quickly as expected. When lining up behind the Safety Car for the restart, Luka found himself in P8 behind the slick-tyres VAR of Popov. Having to wait until the finish line to overtake, he lost precious seconds behind the VAR on the final corner. By the time he was able to overtake him on turn one, the gap to the leading group had become enormous, so he had no choice but to capitalize on the mistakes of others and take home a fifth place.

He now turns his focus to Barcelona, a circuit he knows very well, and therefore one where he can fight for the win.

In karting, Benjamin Westwood dominated the first round of the Maltese Championship. Despite being a debutant in the OKNJ category, he dominated all the sessions, and then took the win with fastest lap in all the races.