Wheldon takes pole in red flag-filled F4 World Cup qualifying in Macau

Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee

Sebastian Wheldon claimed pole position at the FIA Formula 4 World Cup in an incident-filled qualifying session in Macau.

The first 15 minutes ran clean. Fionn McLaughlin, who had not set any laptimes in practice, was first to the top before Wheldon and then Emanuele Olivieri lowered the pace. Olivieri’s 2m25.719s put him 0.301 seconds ahead, with Jules Roussel a further 0.018s behind.

On his next lap, Olivieri improved to 2m23.455s to lead Kean Nakamura Berta by 0.046s until Roussel completed his lap and went fastest by 0.119s. Rintaro Sato then posted a 2m25.284s to pip him by 0.052s.

Wheldon returned to the top with a 2m25.023s set 13 minutes in, with Olivieri 0.137s behind. Roussel was able to go even faster, reclaiming provisional pole by 0.27s while Sato set a 2m25.089s to demote Olivieri to fourth.

Alexandre Munoz had set fastest sector times before a crash and then stopping at turn 16, with Wheldon reducing Roussel’s advantage by 0.002s just before red flags waved as Munoz’s car was retrieved. Rayan Caretti graced the barriers too, but got away with it.

The session clock was paused during the seven-minute stoppage, and after it restarted Gino Trappa locked up at Lisboa and stopped by the barriers, but was able to continue without issue. However just before qualifying’s halfway mark Caretti was not as lucky as he parked his car in the Lisboa barriers and red flags returned.

Nobody improved between the two stoppages, the latter lasting six minutes, and personal bests began to be set with 15 minutes left of qualifying.

Nakamura went from fifth to first with a 2m24.538s, then Olivieri rose to third by lapping 0.352s off the new benchmark.

Three minutes later, Thomas Bearman got within 0.007s of Nakamura and Tiago Rodrigues went fifth fastest. That demoted Wheldon to sixth, but when he crossed the line he set a 2m24.148s to lead the way by 0.39s.

Nakamura reduced his advantage to 0.136s with 10-and-a-half minutes to go, and Olivieri set a personal best to be 0.216s off Wheldon.

Rodrigues returned to fifth with another improvement, then Roussel tried going down his inside at Lisboa. Roussel’s front-left wheel tagged Rodrigues’s rear-right at the apex and the latter was sent into the barriers. Elsewhere, Trappa hit a barrier and was sent spinning, so red flags waved. The recovery of Trappa’s car meant the stoppage lasted almost 10 minutes.

When qualifying resumed, nine minutes remained. Nakamura slid into the barriers at Dona Maria on his first flying lap post-restart but continued, while Sato was not as fortunate as he had a session-ending shunt at Fisherman’s Bend.

Nobody had improved, meaning Wheldon secured pole for the qualification race ahead of Nakamura.

McLaughlin completed 16 laps and qualified seventh, just behind Roussel. Both moved ahead of Sato after his fastest lap was deleted for causing red flags.

Qualifying results