Slater pushes past Stolcermanis to dominate and take Euro 4 lead

Photo: ACI Sport

Freddie Slater fought his way past Prema team-mate Tomass Stolcermanis before dominating a very wet second Euro 4 race at the Red Bull Ring.

Heavy rain had delayed the track programme and led to several laps behind the safety car before racing could begin. When it did, positions remained unchanged at the front with polesitter Stolcermanis staying ahead of Slater and the Van Amersfoort Racing duo of Gustav Jonsson and Hiyu Yamakoshi.

That was until car racing debutant Thomas Bearman slid into the gravel on his own at Turn 4, triggering the return of the safety car.

The race resumed with 13 minutes left on the clock and Slater went side-by-side with Stolcermanis for the lead into Turn 4. While there didn’t appear to be contact between the Prema pair, they did get very close, and Stolcermanis ended up running into the gravel on the exit, falling to sixth.

The stewards did note the incident but Slater was meanwhile able to pull away to win by over 11 seconds, with Jonsson and Yamakoshi completing the podium.

Behind fourth-placed Maxim Rehm of US Racing, Stolcermanis recovered to fifth in front of his team-mates Rashid Al Dhaheri and Kean Nakamura-Berta, who had started 13th.

British Formula 4 champion-elect Deagen Fairclough drove an impressive race for Hitech from 20th on the grid, climbing into the top 10 before an off through the gravel left him 11th at the flag.

Akshay Bohra couldn’t repeat the same great progress he made in race one, finishing 12th and therefore conceding the points lead to Slater.

Race results (16 laps)