Photo: Magnus Torquato
Brazilian Formula 4 supported Formula 1’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos last weekend with a trophy round.
In practice on Friday morning, TMG Racing’s Filippo Fiorentino set a 1m36.502s to pip Cavaleiro Sports’ Ethan Nobels to top spot by 0.054 seconds. Bassani Racing’s Pedro Lins and Pedro Lima were split by 0.35s in third and fourth.
Qualifying was at the end of the day, with drivers’ second-best laptimes setting race one’s grid and fastest laps setting race three’s grid.
Fiorentino was quickest again, improving to 1m36.299s to top the timesheet by 0.169s. Lima was second, 0.011s ahead of TMG’s Pietro Mesquita, and team-mate Cadi Baptista trailed by 0.215s. Nobels was fifth, 0.241s off pole, and a second covered the top 14.
On second-best laptimes, Fiorentino earned pole by 0.215s over Baptista and 0.24s over Mesquita. Nobels was fourth, 0.328s back, and Lima qualified fifth.
The next morning, drivers faced a wet track for race one and Fiorentino led lights-to-flag. He had a 0.811s gap after lap one, then Mesquita closed in on lap two. That was as far as his challenge went, as Fiorentino pulled away in all but one of the remaining laps.
Fiorentino won by 5.983s, with Nobels initially on Mesquita’s tail then losing out to Lima. He got back past on lap four, and did not let Mesquita escape as he took second from him on lap eight.
Lins rose from eighth to sixth on lap one, overtook Baptista on lap three then Lima on lap five to finish a lonely fourth, with Lima dropping down to 14th while Baptista’s pace left him sixth.
Race two was in the late afternoon, and only ran for six laps due to two big crashes. On lap one, Nobels was spun at turn seven and then hit from the side by team-mate Joao Paulo Sanzovo. Both were hospitalised.
There was a delay before racing continued, and on lap six another crash meant time ran out on the race clock.
Cavaleiro’s Elias Barbosa dived into turn one and went spinning, and behind him was Bassani’s Ciro Sobral who had to back off slightly. Entering the corner with more speed were TMG’s Federico Diaz and Naim Saleh.
Diaz locked up and aimed for the inside so not to hit Sobral, but Saleh was already to his inside and also locking up. Saleh’s front-right wheel hit Diaz’s rear-left and it sent him flying over Diaz’s car, before bouncing off the top of it, rolling over Sobral’s and spinning into the runoff after landing.
Once his car had been hit, Diaz crashed into Sobral and sent him spinning. The trio were hospitalised, with Nobels, Saleh and Sanzovo ruled out for the next day.
Sobral had started from reversed-grid pole after finishing eighth in race one, but fell down the order as Cavaleiro’s Rafaela Ferreira came from fourth on the grid to win. Fiorentino and Lima completed the podium.
Race three took place on a wet track on Sunday morning, and Fiorentino led lights-to-flag again to secure the ‘F4 Interlagos Grand Prix’ title. Lima was second throughout, Mesquita was third and Ferreira took fourth place mid-race.
Results round-up
Race 1 (11 laps)
1 Filippo Fiorentino TMG Racing 26m50.895s
2 Ethan Nobels Cavaleiro Sports +5.983s
3 Pietro Mesquita TMG Racing +6.756s
4 Pedro Lins Bassani Racing +11.050s
5 Rafaela Ferreira Cavaleiro Sports +15.481s
6 Cadi Baptista TMG Racing +16.732s
7 Renzo Barbuy Bassani Racing +18.597s
8 Ciro Sobral Bassani Racing +22.077s
9 Federico Diaz TMG Racing +22.080s
10 Enricco Abreu Calveiro Sports +23.195s
Pole: Fiorentino, 1m36.303s
Fastest lap: Fiorentino, 1m45.492s
Race 2 (6 laps)
1 Ferreira 24m18.892s
2 Fiorentino +0.572s
3 Pedro Lima Bassani Racing +1.042s
4 Mesquita +4.075s
5 Abreu +4.079s
6 Lins +7.677s
7 Celo Hahn TMG Racing +11.377s
8 Elias Barbosa Cavaleiro Sports +19.908s
9 Baptista +26.117s
Ret Sobral
FL: Fiorentino, 1m37.153s
Race 3 (9 laps)
1 Fiorentino 16m05.531s
2 Lima +4.242s
3 Mesquita +6.027s
4 Ferreira +6.807s
5 Lins +11.058s
6 Baptista +11.572s
7 Hahn +13.183s
8 Barbuy +15.347s
9 Abreu +15.954s
10 Christian Helou Bassani Racing +16.871s
P: Fiorentino, 1m36.299s
FL: Ferreira, 1m45.096s
F4 Interlagos GP standings
1 Fiorentino 66 2 Ferreira 38 3 Mesquita 38 4 Lima 28 5 Lins 26 6 Nobels 18 7 Baptista 16 8 Barbuy 10 9 Albreu 9 10 Hahn 8