Al Azhari wins F4 UAE race two at Yas Marina

Photo: F4 UAE

Keanu Al Azhari climbed from third to first on the opening lap to win Saturday’s second Formula 4 United Arab Emirates contest at Yas Marina.

Kean Nakamura-Berta inherited reversed-grid pole after being promoted one place to 12th in the earlier encounter due to Hitech GP’s Deagen Fairclough being handed a 10-second post-race penalty for causing a collision.

Nakamura led away at the start while his Mumbai Falcons team-mate Dion Gowda lost second to Yas Heat Academy’s Al Azhari, and R-ace GP’s Raphael Narac stalled from fifth on the grid.

Al Azhari moved into the lead on the opening lap when Nakamura ran wide, with the pair pulling clear as a three-way battle raged for third.  Hitech’s Gabriel Stilp prevailed against Gowda and Yas Heat’s Zack Scoular in that tussle with a lunge up the inside of the Scoular moments before the safety car was deployed following a number of incidents.

Tiago Rodrigues and Peter Bouzinelos came to a halt in the middle of the circuit after coming together while Fairclough, Jack Beeton and Enzo Yeh headed for the pitlane with damage, Yeh retiring with a broken front-left suspension.

Al Azhari was never headed once the race resumed with just under 17 minutes remaining, the local driver eventually taking victory by 1.326s from Nakamura.

The race was far more eventful behind the pair. Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri climbed from seventh to fifth following the safety car restart, while his team-mate Doriane Pin collided with Sainteloc Racing’s Matteo Quintarelli, resulting in both tumbling down the order with front-wing damage.

Al Dhaheri continued to go on the offensive by sweeping around the outside of Scoular for fourth with Mumbai Falcons duo Freddie Slater and Alex Powell – who had started from the grid’s sixth row – also sweeping past Scoular into fifth and sixth.

Stilp soon came under pressure for third from Al Dhaheri, who had to defend from Slater at the same time. Al Dhaheri made another bid for third but ran wide and lost out to Slater, who then also passed Stilp on the following lap and remained in the final podium spot until the finish while closing the deficit to the front two.

Stilp and Al Dhaheri continued to squabble over fourth, with Stilp eventually outbraking himself and losing out to both Powell and Nikita Bedrin.

Bedrin soon passed Powell, but was edged to fourth at the chequered flag by Al Dhaheri. Stilp came home seventh ahead of Scoular and Kai Daryanani, while Alvise Rodella was promoted to 10th after Kamal Mrad retired in the closing stages. Gowda, Yuanpu Cui, Aurelia Nobels and Everett Stack also failed to finish the race.

Race results (14 laps)