Photo: F4 ME
Yas Heat Academy’s Adam Al Azhari and R-ace GP’s Alex Powell shared the pole positions in Formula 4 Middle East qualifying at Losail.
Al Azhari topped Q1 to claim race one pole, ajnd got the job done early. Initially R-ace’s Emanuale Oliveri and Powell set the pace, then Al Azhari’s own team-mate August Raber moved to the top.
Olivieri set the first sub-two minute lap, which Powell bettered by 0.121 seconds, then Alexander Savinkov made the third R-ace driver to hit the top of the timesheet as he set a 1m59.253s.
Approaching the session’s halfway point, Al Azhari lowered the pace to 1m58.814s and that benchmark was then smashed by Oliveri who posted a 1m56.852s.
Al Azhari still had more pace in hand, and he beat Olivieri by 0.583s with four minutes to go. His 1m56.269s proved unbeatable, although others tries and many improved on their final laps.
Olivieri got within 0.224s of the poleman, Powell and Mumbai Falcons’ Kean Nakamura Berta were split by 0.01s and were under 0.4s behind, then everyone else was over a second off the pace.
Evans GP’s Farah Al Yousef and Seth Gilmore failed to get any representative running in.
There was very little action in the first half of Q2, and it was only with five minutes to go that the first flying lap appeared on the board. Xcel Motorsport’s Cole Hewetson laid down the first two fastest laps, then Akcel GP by PHM Racing’s Reno Francot lowered the pace to 1m57.139s.
Half a minute later Powell flew to the top with a 1m56.418s, a time that Al Azhari was able to beat by 0.328s with 38s left of the session. Powell had crossed the line a few seconds before the chequered flag waved, and on his final lap he nosed ahead of Al Azhari by 0.145s for his fourth pole of the season.
Olivieri was only 0.035s slower than Al Azhari, and Nakamura was 0.66s off the pace in fourth. Prema’s Newman Chi, Raber and Evans GP’s Tiago Rodrigues were the only others within a second of Powell, and Gilmore again got no laps in.
Results round-up
Qualifying 1
1 Adam Al Azhari Yas Heat Academy 1m56.269s
2 Emanuele Olivieri R-ace GP +0.224s
3 Alex Powell R-ace GP +0.370s
4 Kean Nakamura Berta Mumbai Falcons +0.380s
5 August Raber Yas Heat Academy +1.002s
6 Reno Francot Akcel GP +1.007s
7 Tomass Stolcermanis Mumbai Falcons +1.108s
8 Tiago Rodrigues Evans GP +1.128s
9 Taha Hassiba QMMF +1.303s
10 Sasha Bondarev Prema +1.415s
Qualifying 2
1 Powell 1m55.945s
2 Al Azhari +0.145s
3 Olivieri +0.180s
4 Nakamura +0.660s
5 Newman Chi Prema +0.895s
6 Raber +0.968s
7 Rodrigues +0.973s
8 Francot +1.146s
9 Stolcermanis +1.311s
10 Yuhao Fu Xcel Motorsport +1.313s