Petrovic ends Spanish F4 Winter Championship with victory

Photo: Spanish Winter Championship

The Spanish Formula 4 Winter Championship ended at Motorland Aragon with victory for Tecnicar Motorsport’s Andrej Petrovic.

Qualifying for the final race took place on Sunday morning, and G4 Racing’s Jean Paul Karras was first to lap at a representative pace.

MP Motorsport’s Felipe Reijs was next to the top, then Tecnicar’s Nacho Tunon.

Noah Monteiro was first to set a sub-2m01s lap, but seconds later he was bettered by Campos Racing team-mate Vivek Kanthan. Tunon edged ahead by 0.119 seconds, but Petrovic was just behind him and lowered the pace to 2m00.538s.

Tunon posted a third successive improvement next time by, setting a 2m00.404s that put him on top again before MP’s Rocco Coronel went quickest by 0.263s.

Petrovic waited until his last two laps to reach his best pace, with a 2m00.034s followed by a 1m59.650s. Between the two, Coronel posted a 1m59.673s so missed out on pole by 0.023s.

He was not Petrovic’s closest rival though, as Tunon lapped 0.009s shy of his team-mate’s benchmark.

Drivex School’s Nathan Tye qualified fourth, 0.6s off the pace and 0.017s ahead of Monlau Motorsport’s Miki Blascos. Kanthan and champion Monteiro ended up in ninth and 14th, while five drivers had all of their laptimes deleted over track limits abuse.

Petrovic held off his team-mate at the start of the race, as Tye went side-by-side with Coronel several times before the latter snuck past Tunon.

Tye overtook Tunon at turn 15 on lap three, with Kanthan following past down the back straight and MP’s Borys Lyzen overtaking Tunon at turn 16.

It became a five-car fight for third until Drivex’s Elliot Kaczynski and Monlau’s Rahim Alibhai crashed on lap five and the safety car was summoned. Monteiro and MP’s Reno Francot were 12th and 13th, before Lammers pitted on lap six.

Racing resumed on lap eight, and Monteiro leapt up to ninth past MP’s Kasper Schormans, Campos’s Jacob Micallef and Ty Fisher.

Tunon had reclaimed fifth from Lyzen before the safety car period, and retained it on the restart lap as a double move by Lyzen enabled Tunon to get past Kanthan while Schormans led a big group of cars.

Kanthan was overtaking Tunon around the outside of turn one on lap 11 when they made contact and Tunon crashed out. The safety car returned, and Blascos was now fifth ahead of Monteiro, Campos’s Daniel Kelleher and Kanthan.

On the lap 13 restart, Francot and G4’s Philippe Armand Karras crashed, with the latter beaching and requiring the safety car to lead the field for the rest of the race. That sealed victory for Petrovic, ahead of Coronel and Tye.

Kanthan overtook Kelleher before the last interruption, but a 10s penalty dropped him to 23rd. Schormans lost 10th to a five-second penalty.

Race results (14 laps)