Photo: Copa Notiauto
Vivek Kanthan broke his Formula 4 victory duck on his debut in a NACAM championship outing in Mexico City.
The American rookie’s primary programme this year is Spanish F4 with Campos Racing, and he brought the NACAM grid up to 10 cars this weekend by joining the Alessandros Racing team is has an alliance with.
Only seven drivers contested in-season testing at the track on July 19. Fernando Luque was fastest, setting a 1m34.106s to lead Jose Martinez by 0.345 seconds.
In free practice one on Friday, on a different track layourt it was Kanthan who set the pace. His 1m49.553s best put him 0.882s clear of Marco Alquicira. Luque moved ahead with a 1m48.344s in FP2, leading Alquicira by 0.221s and Kanthan by 0.479s. He went even faster in qualifying, setting a 1m47.72s to clinch pole by 0.159s over debutant Fernando Rivera.
Points leader Zaky Ibrahim and Kanthan trailed by 0.395s and 0.428s respectively, with Martinez also within 0.5s of pole.
Race one ended the day, and the top two qualifiers battled at the front early on. Luque was the faster of the two, but could not make anything of it and the pair collided on lap seven. Both tried continuing, but soon the safety car was out and both had retired.
Kanthan profited to take the lead, with Alan Zezatti and Alquicira rising to second and third. In the remaining green flag laps, Kanthan pulled away to win and Alquicira overtook Zezatti for second. Ibrahim was demoted to fifth on the final lap by Alejandro Bobadilla, who finished 0.047s ahead.
The top four were flipped to form the front of race two’s grid the next day, and it was a thriller. Ibrahim jumped up to third straight away, and the top two went side-by-side through the first corners. Zezatti was alongside Bobadilla again briefly into turn four, before he began pulling away.
Kanthan ended the lap in third, and despite a huge lock-up somehow took second place into turn four on lap two. But he then slid off at turn six, seemingly with damage, and had to pit.
Elias Vignola now held third, but Luque went down the inside of him at turn one on lap four. Luque tried the same on Zezatti a lap later but did not leave him enough room on the outside. He went off, rejoined by bouncing over turn two’s kerbs and sent both of them onto the grass and down the order.
Vignola was promoted to second, ahead of Rivera, Zezatti, Martinez and Luque. Alquicira overtook Luque on lap six, then both cleared Martinez on lap seven.
Luque got back past Alquicira into turn one on lap eight, and Rivera did not look back after getting ahead of Vignola. Zezatti fought his way past him in sector one on lap nine, and Vignola looked to have slipstreamed back ahead on lap 10 but braked early for turn one and as Zezatti turned in on the outside there was contact and he got spun around.
It was Luque’s turn next, and he avoided a similar clash on lap 12. That allowed Alquicira to get alongside, but he got squeezed at turn six and Martinez went past.
Luque left it to the last moment on lap 13 to tuck out of Vignola’s slipstream and go around the outside of him into turn four. He locked up, but got the move done with Alquicira doing the same to Martinez.
The next lap, Martinez slipstreamed back past as Ibrahim joined in and Luque pulled away. Alquicira and Ibrahim twice traded places, and on the final lap a mistake dropped Vignola down from fourth to seventh. Unaware of the thrills behind, Bobadilla won by 7.333s.
Luque started on pole for race three, but it was Alquicira who led into turn one where Bobadilla and Zezatti had a race-ending collision. The top two were side-by-side into turn four, then Kanthan and Martinez were disputing third entering the stadium section before the safety car appeared.
Racing resumed on lap four, and Luque lost second by going deep at turn four. Martinez was alongside Luque too but got squeezed off, and dropped behind Ibrahim and Vignola to sixth.
The top four broke away, and Luque reclaimed second down the inside of turn one on lap seven.
Vignola spun in the stadium section on lap nine, and Rivera briefly stopped trackside on lap 11, then Alquicira built a gap at the end to win as battles ensued behind.
Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Vivek Kanthan Alessandros Racing 30m25.751s
2 Marco Alquicira Santinel Racing +1.820s
3 Alan Zezatti Ram Racing +4.401s
4 Alejandro Bobadilla Alessandros Racing +4.715s
5 Zaky Ibrahim Ram Racing +4.762s
6 Elias Vignola Ram Racing +6.052s
7 Max Mora Ram Racing +12.332s
Ret Fernando Luque Alessandros Racing
Ret Fernando Rivera Ram Racing
Ret Jose Martinez Alessandros Racing
Pole: Luque, 1m47.720s
Fastest lap: Ibrahim, 1m47.949s
Race 2 (17 laps)
1 Bobadilla 30m45.014s
2 Rivera +7.333s
3 Luque +12.408s
4 Martinez +19.865s
5 Alquicira +21.343s
6 Ibrahim +21.526s
7 Vignola +27.237s
8 Mora +28.058s
9 Zezatti +41.213s
NC Kanthan
FL: Rivera, 1m47.369s
Race 3 (15 laps)
1 Alquicira 30m20.528s
2 Luque +3.290s
3 Kanthan +4.464s
4 Ibrahim +4.590s
5 Martinez +4.711s
6 Mora +19.967s
7 Vignola +20.760s
8 Rivera +1m02.566s
Ret Bobadilla
Ret Zezatti
FL: Alquicira, 1m47.351s
Championship standings
1 Ibrahim 194 2 Luque 184 3 Bobadilla 150 4 Martinez 138 5 Alquicira 119 6 Vignola 80 7 Zezatti 78 8 Mora 68 9 Kanthan 40 10 Alex Popow Jr 40