Al Azhari takes his first Spanish F4 win behind the safety car

Photo: Spanish F4

Keanu Al Azhari claimed his first Spanish Formula 4 win at Algarve in a race that finished behind the safety car.

The MP Motorsport driver made a strong start from pole and had a 0.852-second lead over Campos Racing’s Ernesto Rivera at the end of lap one. A spin for Eloi Gonzalez and Tim Gerhards stopping on track on lap two led to the safety car’s first appearance, and racing did not resume until lap six.

This time Al Azhari built a 0.587s lead within a lap, and Rivera then came under pressure from MP’s Mattia Colnaghi. At the start of lap seven he defended down the pit straight, but then left the door open at turn one and Colnaghi went past.

Rivera tried reclaiming second place at the hairpin, then later in the lap Colnaghi went off while defending but stayed ahead. At another corner Rivera went off as he tried going side-by-side with him, and ended up dropping to sixth behind Rene Lammers, James Egozi and Thomas Strauven.

Lammers and Egozi had been battling each other, and were so preoccupied in doing o that on lap eight Rodin Motorsport’s Thomas Strauven was able to go around the outside of both at turn one. Jan Przyrowski and points leader Lucas Fluxa later got past Rivera, and Fluxa started to attack Lammers before the safety car returned on lap 12 due to an incident involving Matteo Quintarelli and Mikkel Pedersen.

There was not enough time for a restart after that, as Wiktor Dobrzanski stopped at turn two on lap 15 and it meant the safety car stayed on track for the next lap which was the last.

That guaranteed Al Azhari’s victory, with Colnaghi and Strauven in second and third. Strauven had passed Egozi on lap one, and set the race’s fastest lap to earn an extra point.

Yevan David went from 18th to 12th, than fell to 18th again before recovering to 13th between the safety car periods.

Race results (16 laps)