Photo: F4 Spain
MP Motorsport’s Maciej Gladysz and Keanu Al Azhari won Spanish Formula 4’s two Sunday races at Motorland Aragon.
The day’s action began with qualifying, and Keanu Al Azhari just pipped MP Motorsport team-mate Griffin Peebles to race three pole by 0.04 seconds after both improved on their final lap.
Campos Racing’s Jan Przyrowski was 0.145s off Al Azhari’s 1m57.528s benchmark in third place, with MP’s Mattia Colnaghi and Maciej Gladysz in fourth and fifth. The title-contending Ernesto Rivera could only qualify 11th in his Campos-run car, and Rodin Motorsport’s Peter Bouzinelos was in 35th and last place after having all of his laptimes deleted due to track limits abuse.
Gladysz’s second-best lap from Saturday’s qualifying session comfortably put him on race two pole, and he shared the front row with Campos’s Nathan Tye. Enzo Tarnvanichkul (Campos) and Rene Lammers (MP) filled row two, with Mikkel Pedersen (Drivex School) and Lucas Fluxa (MP) next up.
Peebles and Bouzinelos qualified seventh and eighth, ahead of Pryzrowski, Colnaghi, Camspos’ James Egozi and Rivera. Al Azhari was all the way down in 17th place.
Gladysz immediately cut to the inside to defend his lead, and at turn one Monlau Motorsport’s Hiyu Yamakoshi spun around. Sainteloc Racing’s Matteo Quintarelli also crashed out, and the safety car was summoned.
Lammers and Fluxa each gained a place before racing was neutralised, while Al Azhari climbed to 13th.
Racing resumed on lap three, and the fight for second on lap five turned into a six-car fight with Fluxa snatching fourth ahead of Pedersen, Przyrowski and Tarnvanichkul. That enabled Gladysz to break away up front, with Tye and Lammers then creating a gap to the ongoing battle for fourth down to 10th.
Przyrowski attacked Pedersen for fifth on lap eight, and a lap later Al Azhari and Egozi went off track in battle as the former tried to get into the points.
Both battles went wrong, with Przyrowski dropping to eighth and Al Azhari later falling to 16th as more drivers got involved in their fights. Colnaghi demoted Pryzrowski to ninth on lap 12, as Gladysz cruised to victory by 2.63s.
Tarnvanickhul finished fifth, and Pedersen dropped to eighth due to a track limit penalty.
Race three was full of exciting action. Adam Hideg started from the pits due to a technical issue, Gladysz got a puncture and Tim Gerhard crashed on lap one, and Al Azhari gradually pulled away from Peebles and Colnaghi (who had passed Przyrowski) after an early saftey car peiod to take a championship lead-extending win.
Behind them, Tarnvichkul, Rivera, Tye, Lammers, Rivera and Rodin’s Thomas Strauven spent all race fighting over the remaining points places.
Przyrowski went down the order then back up it to finish fourth, Fluxa was fifth after gaining several places late on (including one from the penalised Rivera), Lammers was seventh and Tye spun out on the final lap.
Results round-up
Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Maciej Gladyz MP Motorsport 27m16.446s
2 Nathan Tye Campos Racing +2.630s
3 Rene Lammers MP Motorsport +5.892s
4 Lucas Fluxa MP Motorsport +7.223s
5 Enzo Tarnvanichkul Campos Racing +10.277s
6 Jan Przyrowski Campos Racing +14.160s
7 Mattia Colnaghi MP Motorsport +16.117s
8 Mikkel Pedersen Drivex School +16.244s
9 Juan Cota Drivex School +18.368s
10 Thomas Strauven Rodin Motorsport +19.833s
Pole: Gladysz, 1m58.784s
Fastest lap: Gladysz, 1m58.030s
Race 3 (16 laps)
1 Keanu Al Azhari MP Motorsport 33m50.419s
2 Griffin Peebles MP Motorsport +3.724s
3 Colnaghi +4.105s
4 Przyrowski +10.770s
5 Fluxa +12.698s
6 Ernesto Rivera Campos Racing +15.376s
7 Lammers +17.633s
8 Pedersen +21.533s
9 Strauven +22.283s
10 Francisco Macedo Drivex School +22.524s
P: Al Azhari, 1m57.528s
FL: Przyrowski, 1m59.203s
Championship standings
1 Al Azhari 178 2 Colnaghi 130 3 Gladysz 128 4 Fluxa 94 5 Rivera 94 6 Egozi 81 7 Strauven 78 8 Przyrowski 63 9 Tye 57 10 Peebles 48