Nael pips Ho to pole in Spanish F4 qualifying at Valencia

Photo: F4 Spain

Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael claimed pole for the third Spanish Formula 4 race of the weekend at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit by just 0.023 seconds.

The 20-minute qualifying session kicked off Sunday’s track action, and Monlau Motorsport’s Ricardo Gracia was the driver to beat at first with a 1m33.674s.

MP Motorsport’s Valerio Rinicella was next to the top with a 1m33.377s, with his team-mate Keanu Al Azhari also bettering Gracia, then Campos Racing’s Andres Cardenas went fastest by 0.022s.

Rodin Carlin’s Noah Lisle was the first driver into the 1m32s, and was on provisional pole for less than a minute before Rinicella set a 1m32.991s to move ahead by 0.003s.

Pedro Clerot scrubbed a further 0.01s off the benchmark pace as the session entered its second half, but on Rinicella’s next lap he was able to set a 1m32.721s.

A few minutes later he improved to 1m32.567s to keep himself on top, with Nael usurping him by 0.074s with six minutes to go.

Campos’s Christian Ho reduced Nael’s advantage to 0.023s with just over four minutes left of qualifying, then red flags waved due to Lin Hodenius getting stuck in the turn one gravel. He had his best laptime deleted as a result.

There were 206s left on the clock when qualifying restarted, but few were able to improve in the time left. Campos’s Enzo Deligny rose to seventh place, 0.223s off the pace, while the top six positions were locked in from before the red flag stoppage.

Nael therefore earned his fifth pole of the season ahead of Ho, Rinicella and Matteo De Palo.

Qualifying results