Photo: Brazilian F4
Brazilian Formula 4 had 12 cars on track at Autodromo Velo Citta for round three after a two-month break, and Rafaela Ferreira made history as the championship’s first female winner.
The weekend had lots going for it: a series veteran returning, pole positions claimed by tiny margins and of course Ferreira’s victory.
Alvaro Cho, who missed round two, topped qualifying to take race three pole by 0.018 seconds over TMG Racing team-mate Arthur Pavie. Bassani Racing’s points leader Matheus Comparatto was third, 0.048s, and Ferreira was 0.053s off pole in fourth.
Comparatto claimed race one pole with his second-best laptime by an even tighter margin, 0.004s, and converted it into victory after leading all but one lap.
Pavie jumped pat Cho at the start and tried to attack Comparatto through the early laps. Genaro Trappa also had a good launch, going from fifth to third. But Comparatto had the race under control won ahead of Pavie.
Starting third was rookie Ethan Nobels, who had the best reaction when the lights went out but then found the back of Chovand they had light contact. After going four-wide move into the opening corner with Lucca Zucchini and Nobels, he fell to fifth. His Cavaleiro Sports-run car seemed to have no problem, as he managed to overtake Zucchini and Trappa during the race to finish third.
Trappa and Guilherme Favarete came home fourth and fifth. Cecilia Rabelo met the checkered flag in eighth, but got a 10s penalty due to a last lap incident with Rogerio Grotta. So reverse-grid pole for race two was inherited by Ferreira.
She had an strong start jump to that race, as did Cho from third. Ferreira shook off her team-mate then, and also on a restart after a brief safety car period. Nobels settling for third behind them, and ahead of Comparatto and Trappa.
Race three had Cho, Pavie, Comparatto, Ferreira and Nobels in the top five spots. The podium trio had good starts, keeping their positions. Rafaela however tried the outside line at turn one, loosing ground to Nobels and Trappa, who started from row three.
An early incident between Rabelo and Zucchini prompted a safety car period. Cho kept his nerves on the lap five restart and led all the way.
Pavie tried following and managed to get within 0.5s of him late on on, but Cho was unstoppable for his second win of 2024. Comparatto was third throughout, figuring that it was the best suitable outcome to his title hopes, as his lead grew back to 40 points over fourth-placed Nobels who managed to neutralise an attack from Trappa on lap six.
Ciro Sobral was clever to overtake Trappa after their failed attack on Nobels. He than defended well from Ferreira, who climbed back the field after her initial drop.
Sobral and Ferreira had last lap contact, with the later losing her spoiler while Sobral still finished fifth.
Results round-up
Race 1 (22 laps)
1 Matheus Comparatto Bassani Racing 32m13.636s
2 Arthur Pavie TMG Racing +2.074s
3 Ethan Nobels Cavaleiro Sports +2.787s
4 Genaro Trappa Bassani Racing +26.747s
5 Guilherme Favarete TMG Racing +30.476s
6 Alvaro Cho TMG Racing +30.826s
7 Lucca Zucchini Cavaleiro Sports +34.018s
8 Rafaela Ferreira TMG Racing +45.752s
9 Rogerio Grotta Cavaleiro Sports +47.429s
10 Cecilia Rabelo Bassani Racing +48.430s
Pole: Comparatto, 1m26.456s
Fastest lap: Pavie, 1m27.137s
Race 2 (14 laps)
1 Ferreira 22m33.858s
2 Cho +3.257s
3 Nobels +4.230s
4 Compaatto +5.775s
5 Trappa +6.619s
6 Pavie +6.759s
7 Zucchini +14.473s
8 Joao Pedro Souza Cavaleiro Sports +18.042s
9 Grotta +19.436s
Ret Rabelo
FL: Pavie, 1m27.373s
Race 3 (21 laps)
1 Cho 32m14.637s
2 Pavie +0.785s
3 Comparatto +6.137s
4 Nobels +11.425s
5 Ciro Sobral TMG Racing +17.078s
6 Favarete +17.532s
7 Trappa +18.636s
8 Ferreira +24.846s
9 Grotta, 25.329s
10 Souza +28.856s
P: Cho, 1m26.383s
FL: Pavie, 1m26.341s
Championship standings
1 Comparatto 136 2 Nobels 97 3 Cho 87 4 Ferreira 83 5 Trappa 75 6 Sobral 56 7 Grotta 56 8 Zucchini 50 9 Pavie 43 10 Favarete 34