Olivieri dominates F4 Middle East opener after Powell falters

Photo: Top Speed

Emanuele Olivieri won the first race of the Formula 4 Middle East season at Yas Marina for R-ace GP after faster-starting team-mate Alex Powell hit trouble.

Mercedes junior driver Powell seemed to get the better launch from alongside polesitter Olivieri to nose ahead, only to then suddenly slow and fall through the field as it approached the first turn. Powell would pit under a subsequent safety car, when the team briefly removed his engine cover before he rejoined, and went on to set the fastest lap before an incident with Bader Al Sulaiti that caused both to retire.

Olivieri led from Kean Nakamura-Berta and Tomass Stolcermanis, who leapt up from seventh on the grid. The safety car was required after Fu Yuhao found the barriers entering the hotel section, where an incident involving he and Reno Francot was placed under investigation.

Follwoing the restart, Olivieri – who came 17th in Italian F4 with AKM Motorsport last year – opened up a second’s lead over Nakamura-Berta within the first three laps of racing, then doubled it inside another three laps. He would finished up 6.571 seconds clear as he sealed his first single-seater win in style.

Stolcermanis struggled even more to hold the pace and dropped into the clutches of the battle behind him, headed by Sebastian Wheldon. At the scene of his Formula Trophy win on his Prema debut last month, Wheldon would quickly dispose of Stolcermanis to round out the podium, followed by fellow Prema-run rookies Salim Hanna and Newman Chi.

Francot recovered from the clash with Fu to take sixth for the Akcel GP team run by PHM Racing, in front of R-ace GP’s Oleksandr Savinkov while Stolcermanis slumped to eighth by the flag.

Race results