Photo: Pedro Lins
Heitor Dall’Agnol streaked into the Brazilian Formula 4 points lead with a win and two other podiums in round two at Autodromo Velo Citta last week.
His TMG Racing team-mate Filippo Fiorentino was comfortably quickest by 0.755 seconds in free practice one, and Bassani Racing’s debuting Renzo Barbuy reduced his advantage to 0.643s in FP2.
Dall’Agnol was third, then moved to the top in qualifying. He set a 1m25.967s to claim race three pole by 0.549s, with Bassani’s Pedro Lima second fastest. There was a smaller gap between Lima and Cavaleiro Sports’ Bernardo Gentil in 13th, and 10 drivers were within a second of Dall’Agnol’s pace. Fiorentino was third fastest, ahead of team-mate Pietro Mesquita and Bassani’s Pedro Lins. Cavaleiro’s points leader Ethan Nobels struggled for pace, qualifying 14th.
Drivers’ second-best laptimes set race one’s grid, and Dall’Agnol comfortably claimed pole. This time he had a 0.519s advantage over Fiorentino, with Lima a further 0.02s behind and Nobels 14th again.
Fiorentino went side-by-side with him into the opening corner of the race, but he stayed ahead. There was chaos mid-lap as Mesquita spun around TMG’s Ciro Sobral, and the safety car was called on lap two.
Racing resumed on lap four and Mesquita had another incident, this time with TMG’s Celo Hahn at turn one, and the safety car was needed again. There was almost another crash before the lap seven restart, and Fiorentino locked up into turn one but pulled off a switchback move for the lead.
He buit a 1.5s gap, but Dall’Agnol homed back in at race-end and finished 0.544s behind. Lima was a very distant third, and following the restart Cavaleiro’s Rogerio Grotta charged up to fourth. The battle of the race was for sixth, with Nobels pressuring Lins throughout. They made contact, there was briefly a four-car fight, and Nobels finally got ahead with a turn one dive on the penultimate lap.
Gentil stalled from reversed-grid pole in race two, so Lins led the field into turn one. Bassani’s Murilo Rocha slotted into second, and Nobels was a distant third after the first lap. Fiorentino and Dall’Agnol were next up, and deep in battle.
Dall’Agnol got ahead mid-race, then cleared Nobels. The top two were several seconds up the road, but he was able to turn it into a three-car lead fight late on. He dived down Rocha’s inside at turn one on the final lap and they went side-by-side for several corners. Once ahead, he then had to get defensive to hold second as Lins ran away.
Despite a slow launch, Dall’Agnol was able to keep the lead at the start of race three while Fiorentino went past Lima for second at turn one. Lima drove into the rear of his rival later in lap one, but he got back ahead as Dall’Agnol pulled away.
There was 6.5s between first and second by the finish, with a further 15s to Fiorentino. Most of the battling was outside of the top 10, with Hahn holding off several drivers for a chunk of the race despite an off. Eventually a bigger error sent him across the grass and down the order.
Results round-up
Race 1 (20 laps)
1 Filippo Fiorentino TMG Racing 32m17.403s
2 Heitor Dall’Agnol TMG Racing +0.544s
3 Pedro Lima Bassani Racing +13.018s
4 Rogerio Grotta Cavaleiro Sports +16.425s
5 Murilo Rocha Bassani Racing +17.584s
6 Ethan Nobels Cavaleiro Sports +21.279s
7 Pedro Lins Bassani Racing +24.570s
8 Bernardo Gentil Cavaleiro Sports +24.860s
9 Cadi Baptista TMG Racing +25.514s
10 Renzo Barbuy Bassani Racing +25.747s
Pole: Dall’Agnol, 1m26.108s
Fastest lap: Dall’Agnol, 1m25.959s
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Lins 21m59.401s
2 Dall’Agnol +1.644s
3 Rocha +2.177s
4 Nobels +6.829s
5 Fiorentino +7.546s
6 Pietro Mesquita TMG Racing +8.568s
7 Lima +9.391s
8 Ciro Sobral TMG Racing +10.037s
9 Celo Hahn TMG Racing +11.561s
10 Grotta +12.323s
FL: Dall’Agnol, 1m26.993s
Race 3 (22 laps)
1 Dall’Agnol 31m40.626s
2 Lima +6.575s
3 Fiorentino +21.762s
4 Mesquita +23.867s
5 Lins +33.521s
6 Rocha +34.433s
7 Sobral +35.211s
8 Nobels +39.199s
9 Gentil +42.830s
10 Baptista +47.825s
P: Dall’Agnol, 1m25.967s
FL: Dall’Agnol, 1m26.142s
Championship standings
1 Dall’Agnol 103 2 Rocha 59 3 Mesquita 50 4 Nobels 47 5 Fiorentino 46 6 Lins 45 7 Lima 45 8 Sobral 38 9 Grotta 31 10 Alceu Feldmann Neto 26