Spain’s Juan Cota wins Motorsport Games F4 qualification race

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

MP Motorsport’s Juan Cota won the Motorsport Games Formula 4 qualification race for Spain on Saturday.

Cota was pipped to pole by Tecnicar Motorsport’s Yevan David in a qualifying session that took place on a damp track, but looked likely to take victory in the dry due to recently being a specialist at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit in F4.

That proved to be the case, as Cota immediately took the lead and David had to work hard to hold off Drivex School’s Andres Cardenas into turn one.

Reza Seewooruthun got into fourth ahead of Chester Kieffer at turn four, but then ran wide and dropped back behind him.

David attacked Cota into turns one and three on lap two, but the leader kept his car planted on the racing line and ended the lap 0.685 seconds clear.

Cardenas then pressured David down the pit straight, and on lap four also thought about making a move on David at turn one. Cota was 0.944s clear after four laps, and Cardenas managed to squeeze to the inside of David as they began lap five.

Both went off, and David rejoined ahead. They were side-by-side again though through turn three, and Cardenas got the overtake done at the direction change of turn four. That helped Cota break away by 1.466s, but Cardenas had got the gap back down to a second within a lap and 0.629s the lap after that as David fell away.

The top two continued to get closer until lap 10, when Cota managed to stabalise it. He was 0.7s ahead with two laps to go, but Cardenas closed back in to 0.455s at the finish.

Kieffer went off on lap three and conceded third to Seewooruthun, who kept David in his sights to finish 0.639s behind him and 0.621s ahead of Kieffer.

MP’s Matus Ryba got defensive against Ariel Elkin early on to hold sixth, and Tosei Moriyama was eighth.

Penalties for track limits abuse came into play with the positions below that, leading to Griffin Peebles finishing ninth, Campos Racing’s Max Karhan coming home in 10th and Drivex’s Matheus Comparatto taking 11th place. The penalised Oscar Wurz and Andrija Kostic dropped to 13th and 14th, having battled in the top 10. while Bader Al Sulaiti was a very distant last as he got time penalties and a drive-through for repeatedly running wide.

Race results