Photo: Spanish Winter Championship
Campos Racing’s Noah Monteiro was crowned Spanish Formula 4 Winter champion with a race to spare at Motorland Aragon.
In race one, team-mate Vivek Kanthan became his closest title rival and Drivex School’s Nathan Tye lost that status despite starting on pole.
Tye held the lead at the start and weaved down the back straight on lap one. MP Motorsport’s Rocco Coronel did a switchback move to get on his inside, Tye defended it and Kanthan went around the outside of both but had returned to third after turn 16.
Coronel and Kanthan went either side of Tye into turn one on lap two, and Coronel took the lead. Monteiro swiftly got past Tye too, then he went off and dropped to ninth. Kanthan got alongside Coronel down the back straight and passed on the inside as Coronel locked up, went off at turn 16 and rejoined behind Monteiro.
Daniel Kelleher (Campos) and Fausto Arnaudo (Monlau Motorsport) were fighting in the top six until an incident that ended their races and meant the safety car appeared on lap three.
Racing resumed on lap six, and Kanthan was initially pressured while MP’s Kacper Schormans (who started 11th) overtook MP’s Borys Lyzen into turn 16 for fourth. Jacob Micallef (Campos) and Miki Blascos (Monlau) were next to get into trouble, and the recovery of Micallef’s car meant the safety car returned on lap seven.
The next restart was on lap nine, but an off for Drivex’s Simon Bulbarella meant the safety car immediately returned. Racing resumed with three laps remaining, and in 10th and 14th were MP’s Reno Francot and Tye.
Kanthan was only challenged for the lead at turn 16 on the final lap, with Monteiro getting alongside on the outside, with the top four positions held. Tecnicar Motorsport’s Andrej Petrovic squeezed past Lyzen into turn 16 on lap 11, Francot gained a spot but a last-lap off at turn 15 dropped him to 13th. Tye jumped to 10th on lap 12, then to eighth. But he, Petrovic and Tecnicar’s Nacho Tunon, who had edged ahead of Lyzen, got 10-second penalties and exited the points places while Francot moved back up to ninth.
Schormans set the fastest lap to claim race two pole ahead of Bulbarella, Blascos and Francot. Kanthan, Monteiro, the penalised Kelleher, Coronel and Tye occupied eighth to 12th place on the grid.
The safety car was out on lap one due to TC Racing’s Beau Lowette stopping on track. On the lap three restart, Kanthan passed Arnaudo then Blascos to get into fourth, with Drivex’s Jensen Burnett and Lyzen also clearing Arnaudo.
While Arnaudo’s fall continued, Francot overtook Bulbarella for second and Lyzen took sixth at the first corner of lap four. Kanthan overtoook Bulbarella there on lap five. Blascos was next to lose many places, and on lap six Lyzen got into fourth before the safety car appeared due to MP’s Louis Cochet crashing.
Lyzen overtook Kanthan when racing resumed on lap eight, then the safety car returned as Blascos and Campos’s Ty Fisher had collided. That ensured Schormans won, leading a bunched up field.
Kanthan, Coronel, Tye and Monteiro were penalised 30s post-race and 10s for ninth-placed Petrovic, dropping all but Petrovic out of the top 20 and settling the title as it made Monteiro’s points lead unassailable.
Results round-up
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Vivek Kanthan Campos Racing 32m52.976s
2 Noah Monteiro Campos Racing +0.073s
3 Rocco Coronel MP Motorsport +0.430s
4 Kasper Schormans MP Motorsport +0.956s
5 Borys Lyzen MP Motorsport +8.126s
6 Luna Fluxa Campos Racing +8.601s
7 Elliot Kaczynski Drivex School +8.863s
8 Jensen Burnett Drivex School +9.021s
9 Reno Francot MP Motorsport +9.428s
10 Sebastian Frigolet Drivex School +9.536s
Fastest lap: Schormans, 1m59.675s
Race 2 (10 laps)
1 Schormans 25m38.923s
2 Francot +0.382s
3 Lyzen +0.993s
4 Simon Bulbarella Drivex School +1.698s
5 Daniel Kelleher Campos Racing +3.358s
6 Burnett +4.201s
7 Philippe Armand Karras G4 Racing +4.619s
8 Kaczynski +5.005s
9 Fluxa +5.320s
10 Jacob Micallef Campos Racing +6.558s
FL: Francot, 1m59.936s
Championship standings
1 Monteiro 108 2 Kanthan 78 3 Nathan Tye 66 4 Schormans 57 5 Andrej Petrovic 52 6 Francot 48 7 Nacho Tunon 40 8 Rocco Coronel 38 9 Lyzen 37 10 Kelleher 32