Academy Report: Luke's Imola double

There were points all over for Atlassian Williams Racing this Imola weekend. Luke Browning, Victor Martins, and Alessandro Giusti joined Alex and Carlos by taking top-10 results on their Italian trip.

For Luke, it was more podium finishes, making it four trophies from four rounds and a P2 standing in the championship.

It was an up-and-down few days for Victor, but his single-lap speed shone, and he was just behind Luke for another points-scoring Saturday.

Sandro showed his racecraft, too, soaring up the order in both races to score points after a midfield starting spot.

Here is how the Williams Racing Driver Academy did in Imola...

A P7 qualification for Luke gave our British hopeful two top-10 starts in Emilia-Romagna, and he used that pace to good effect.

The reverse grid Sprint Race meant Luke started from the second row, and he spearheaded a Williams two-pronged attack throughout the opening laps after Victor slotted in behind.

Ritoma Miyata was the target, and the duo piled pressure on the Japanese driver as the race hit the halfway mark, leading to him losing DRS.

That opening allowed Luke to overtake on Lap 14 to grab P3 and his weekend's first podium trip.

It wasn't so straightforward in Sunday's Feature Race, however, but strategy and speed advanced Luke from P7 to P2.

Running a longer first stint than his competitors, the Hitech TGR driver overcut other frontrunners to grab the net race lead after his stop.

Stern defending against teammate Dino Beganovic allowed Alex Dunne to close in with warmer tyres, though, and the Irishman took the lead from Luke.

Nonetheless, the Williams Driver Academy representative kept on the hunt throughout the 35 laps and crossed the line in P2 to jump to P2 in the championship standings.

Monte Carlo awaits next for Luke, and the Principality holds brilliant memories of top-10 success and podium trips.

He has never finished below P8 in Monaco, and grabbed a P3 finish in last year's F3 Feature Race that'll spur him on for more of the same in 2025.

Victor displayed his single-lap speed on Friday to take P3 in one of F2's tightest Qualifying sessions — just 0.006s separated the top three.

Buoyed by that pace, Victor continued his rapid running in the Sprint Race by jumping up three spots from his P8 starting position to run P5 by the second corner.

Filing in just behind Luke, our French F2 hopeful bided his time behind the other Williams livery, and it paid off.

Seeing Luke overtake the sister ART on the outside of Tamburello one lap earlier, Victor promptly followed suit on Lap 15, but switched his pass to the inside of the braking zone.

A DRS train with the chasing Dunne behind made for a nervous final laps, but keeping close to Luke secured Victor a P4 finish and five points for his championship.

Frustratingly, a stall on the grid effectively ended his Feature Race hopes on Lap 1, but he'll be excited for Monaco, where he took a front-row start in last year's round.

Monte Carlo has consistently resulted in point-scoring weekends for Victor, and unlucky timing with the Safety Car in last year's Feature Race prevented him from finishing higher in the top 10.

Sandro started his European tour of familiar circuits at a venue he's excelled at in the past, winning last year's Imola round in Formula Regional.

It might've been more of the same this weekend, but our teenage French racer missed reverse grid pole position by just 0.012s and had to settle for two P13 starts.

That midfield grid slot didn't mean Sandro would settle for no points at the tough-to-pass track, though, and he began his racing from the opening lap of Saturday's Sprint Race.

An early Safety Car paused his push towards Rafael Camara, but he kept on the tail of the F3 leader and battled by on Lap 14.

With Mari Boya retiring during that SC slowdown, that meant P11 for Sandro, and that soon morphed to points after a multi-corner scrap against Santiago Ramos that resulted in a P10 finish.

Taking those Saturday racecraft lessons to Sunday, the 18-year-old Frenchman soared up the order after dropping back to P14 on the opening lap.

Badoer and Bruno del Pino were the first to fall on Laps 4 and 5. A rare pass on the exit of the Variante Alta chicane on Nikola Tsolov grabbed P11 before a DRS pass on Noel Leon had Sandro into the points.

The Tamburello braking point became Sandro's favoured spot, as Ugo Ugochukwi, Louis Sharp, and Roman Bilinski all fell to the MP Motorsport's rookie speed on his way to a P7 finish.

Next weekend will be a special one for Sandro, who has never raced around Monte Carlo before.

He does have some success in southern France, being a three-time winner at Paul Ricard. Could he translate that to the short trip over the border to Monaco? We'll find out soon.