ACM Geeke Racing’s Shimo Zhang secured the Chinese Formula 4 title with a round to spare at Tianfu International Circuit.
The weekend did not start strongly for Zhang, as in free practice one he was 2.631 seconds off the pace in sixth place. Sicong Chen was quickest by over a second, with Meng Cheng second, and Yuhdao Dai 2.266s slower than Chen in third.
A more representative pace was set in FP2, with Cheng posting a 1m23.453s to pip Chen by 0.047s. Ethan Ho was 0.459s behind in third, and Zhang was 1.597s off the pace in 10th.
Friday ended with qualifying, and Chen topped Q1. He beat Yutsai Chan (who had suspected turbo damage) by 0.186 seconds, Ho by 0.331s and Cheng by 0.388s. Zhang qualified fifth, sharing row three of race one’s grid with Dai.
Q2 set race three’s grid, and Chan denied Chen a double by 0.147s. Dai improved to third, but was 0.602s off the pace, with Zhang pipping Cheng to fourth. Andrey Dubynin was sixth, and 4.01s covered the 25-car field. Team KRC’s Ethan Ho was excluded from the session.
Chen held his lead into the opening corner of race one on Saturday, as Dai locked up and ploughed into Chan. Cheng went to the insidfe to take second, Zhang went off-track and rejoined in fifth.
Chan, Dai and Zhang soon got past Cheng, but were over four seconds behind Chen after one lap. The safety car then came out due to Yi Wang going off and retiring, and at the restart Zhang immediately took third.
Another safety car period was triggered on lap six by Yiran Zhou retiring, and in the racing after that Chen was followed closely by Chan and Zhang but did not come under attack and pulled away late on to take his maiden win by 1.377s.
Zhang lost third to a 10s penalty for his unsafe lap one rejoin, and Dai was fourth on-the-road but also got 10s in penalties. It dropped the pair to sixth and ninth, with Ho promoted to the podium.
Dai therefore made the front row of race two’s reversed grid alongside Jing Zefeng. They held position off the line, with Binghong Liu and Zhang following them into turn one.
Zefeng was under pressure later in the lap, but held onto the lead. An incident that eliminated Cheng and Wei Shi then led to the safety car appearing on lap two.
Zhang overtook Liu on the restart, and joined Dai in attacking Zefeng at the end of the lap. That continued to turn one, where Zhang went around the outside of both for the lead. From there he pulled away for a dominant win, while Zefeng dropped down the order.
A lock-up late on and being on the losing side of a three-wide moment with Ho and Chen left him almost half a minute behind the winner in seventh and with even more drivers on his tail.
Yan Yu charged up to third, but finished 13.5s behind Dai in second after a lengthy battle with Chan.
There was a lead change at the start of race three, as Chen went around Chan’s outside at turn one and was ahead as they switched direction for turn two. Zhang had gone to the inside to pass Dai, and when he reached Chan later on he overtook him in a move that sent his rival off. Liu spun out of eight exiting the final corner, but it did not disrupt the action.
The top three ran as a group for a while but once Zhang took the lead he sprinted away. Chan had the pace to pressure Chen, who defended sternly into turn 13 on one lap and sent Chan off in the process. He lost two places immediately, but a safety car period brought him back into podium contention.
It massively helped Chen, who after being put back on Zhang’s tail was able to pass him. Zhang reclaimed the lead by darting to the inside of Chen at the final corner, then pulled away for his 11th win.
Chen had to hold off Dai late in the race, with Dubynin right behind them in fourth. Chan was in their group, but could not progress from sixth.
Marcus Cheong and Ho started on race four’s front row. Chan took third into turn one, then overtook Ho into the esses. He picked off Cheong at turn 13, doing a switchback move when the erstwhile leader locked up.
Zhang overtook Ho then got ahead of Cheong into the esses on a later lap, and as the race went on he hunted down the drivers ahead with Ho and Chen following.
It took some squabbling to get past Zefeng and stay ahead, and Chen later did so on his own. The race was interrupted on lap 15 by a three-car crash at the final corner, and after that Chan held off Zhang to win.
However the result was not enough to keep Chan, Zhang’s closest rival, in title contention.
Results round-up
Race 1 (18 laps)
1 Sicong Chen Black Blade Racing 32m22.768s
2 Yutsai Chan Champ Motorsport +1.377s
3 Ethan Ho Team KRC +8.176s
4 Meng Cheng Black Blade Racing +9.388s
5 Yan Yu Venom Motorsport +11.933s
6 Shimo Zhang ACM Geeke Racing +12.556s
7 Yuzhe Wang Venom Motorsport +13.570s
8 Binghong Liu Black Blade Racing +13.990s
9 Yuhao Dai ONE Motorsports +17.374s
10 Jing Zefeng GYT Racing +18.540s
Pole: Chen, 1m22.046s
Fastest lap: Chan, 1m21.921s
Race 2 (21 laps)
2 Zhang 32m08.362s
2 Dai +5.257s
3 Yu +18.778s
4 Chan +20.415s
5 Ho +24.410s
6 Chen +24.824s
7 Zefeng +28.480s
8 Andrey Dubynin Blackjack Racing +28.912s
9 Wang +29.198s
10 Marcus Cheong Blackjack Racing +30.643s
FL: Zhang, 1m22.125s
Race 3 (19 laps)
1 Zhang 31m26.419s
2 Chen +2.581s
3 Dai +3.023s
4 Dubynin +3.438s
5 Cheng +3.797s
6 Chan +4.038s
7 Wang +4.742s
8 Zefeng +5.965s
9 Ho +6.782s
10 Cheong +7.874s
P: Chan, 1m21.705s
FL: Chen, 1m22.459s
Race 4 (20 laps)
1 Chan 32m38.046s
2 Zhang +0.576s
3 Chen +1.200s
4 Wang +2.627s
5 Yu +3.840s
6 Cheong +4.193s
7 Ho +4.426s
8 Zefeng +5.281s
9 Zeshi Yuanyang Pointer Racing +6.741s
10 Liu +7.156s
FL: Chan, 1m22.246s
Championship standings
1 Zhang 334 2 Chan 231 3 Dai 207 4 Chen 165 5 Dubynin 134 6 Ho 103 7 Yuzhe Wang 85 8 Yu 63 9 Yi Wang 60 10 Cheng 55