Olivieri wins F4 World Cup qualification race as three rivals crash out

Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee

Emanuele Olivieri won the FIA Formula 4 World Cup qualification race in Macau.

He mostly had to hold off Fionn McLaughlin, who set no laptimes in practice but lined up sixth after Jules Roussel’s three-place grid penalty meant he started ninth.

Sebastian Wheldon had pole, ahead of Kean Nakamura Berta and Olivieri. Nakamura was overtaken before the opening corner, then Olivieri swept around the outside of Wheldon through the high-speed Mandarin right-hander to lead.

Approaching the first braking zone at Lisboa, Nakamura went to Wheldon’s outside but both failed to turn in early enough and drove straight into the barriers.

A stunning start by McLaughlin meant he was second after going past the crashed cars, with Tiago Rodrigues rising from fifth to third while Thomas Bearman maintained fourth.

However their victory chances ended at Moorish, where Rodrigues hit the barriers and since Bearman was right behind he had no time to avoid him despite swerving and crashed into his rear.

Gino Trappa was the fifth lap one retiree, and the safety car appeared as the crashed cars were craned away.

Racing resumed on lap four of eight, with Olivieri leading McLaughlin, Rintaro Sato, Roussel, Shimo Zhang, Ary Bansal, Rayan Caretti and Yutsai Chan.

McLaughlin was immediately on the attack, looking to Olivieri’s outside on the straight before Lisboa and then approaching turn eight too as the field went uphill. He could not get alongside either time, then at the Melco hairpin — where passing is not allowed — he nosed into Olivieri’s gearbox at the apex.

It was McLaughlin who suffered the worse traction exiting the corner and Olivieri pulled away. He ended the lap 0.458 seconds ahead, which grew to 1.023s on lap five as Caretti passed Bansal for sixth.

McLaughlin reduced the gap to 0.517s on lap six then utilised Olivieri’s slipstream as they began the penultimate lap. He thought about going to the leader’s inside at Lisboa, but did not commit, with Roussel considering the same as he pressured Sato for third.

The top two went into the final lap split by 0.714s, and ran nose to tail through the mountain section until Melco where McLaughlin caught the edge of the inside barrier with his rear-right wheel.

It caused damage that meant he parked up a few metres later, allowing Olivieri to finish with a 5.687s lead up front to secure pole for the main race.

Roussel had tried overtaking Sato on the outside into Lisboa on the last lap, but backed out of the move after getting alongside, then a pass at R Bend meant they finished side-by-side and Roussel took second by 0.094s.

Rayan Caretti, who started 15th, finished fourth after Zhang had a last-lap incident that damaged the front-right of his car and meant he limped over the line in eighth.

Sato and Bansal are under investigation for being out of position at the first safety car line on the restart.

Race results (8 laps)