Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri seized the early lead in a new-look Formula Trophy before it supports Formula 1’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend.
The previously stand-alone F1 support event run as a precursor to Formula 4 United Arab Emirates championship has been expanded into a three-round Trophy series this year before F4 UAE becomes F4 Middle East for the 2025 season that begins in January.
For Abu Dhabi native Al Dhaheri the Trophy series is a last hurrah in F4 machinery before he moves up to Formula Regional for 2025, and he will even miss the third and final event at his home track to focus on preparations. He will vacate his place in Prema’s three-car Mumbai Falcons line-up for that event to Sebastian Wheldon, who will be making his international F4 debut after coming third in USF Juniors this year.
Al Dhaheri began the opening round in Dubai last weekend as the driver to beat, topping Saturday morning’s free practice and the two subsequent qualifying sessions ahead of Gustav Jonsson, who had earlier led Friday’s test sessions for Pinnacle Motorsport.
Jonsson grabbed the lead at the start of race one before an early safety car was needed to retrieve the car of Fu Yuhao. Al Dhaheri managed the take the lead back from Jonsson eight laps in and sealed victory by 1.2 seconds.
Starting and finishing an impressive third, also within two seconds of the winner at the flag, was Chinese driver Zhenrui Chi in his first car race with Prema. He tested with the team in the UAE last winter as well as in Europe with CL Motorsport, which has taken over MP Motorsport’s Formula Regional Europe entry for 2025.
Kai Daryanani of Evans GP and Jimmy Piszcyk of AGI Sport completed a close top five. Alpine junior Kabir Anurag took sixth for Xcel Motorsport after holding off Yas Heat’s August Raber – who was demoted to ninth by a five-second penalty for a false start – and another single-seater debutant at Prema, Colombian driver Salim Hanna who graduates from its karting squad.
After dropping to the back on the first lap, Nicolas Stati recovered to eighth with a late pass on Chase Fernandez, securing reversed-grid pole for race two. While Stati would slip to fifth off the start, Anurag took up the lead ahead of Piszcyk, Daryanani and Hanna, running under safety car following a first-corner clash involving Ella Lloyd, Adam Al Azhari and Cheng Meng.
Anurag built an early gap after the restart and would hold on to take his first win in cars, helped late on by a battle between Piszcyk and a charging Al Dhaheri. After Al Dhaheri got ahead on the last lap, Piszcyk fought back to get to the line just 0.008s ahead – only to be demoted back down to third once more by the stewards who ruled he overtook off track. Daryanani and Hanna rounded out the top five, with Stati winning a fight with Jonsson for sixth.
As in race one, Jonsson once more surged into an early lead in race three, with Al Dhaheri this time dropping as low as fourth before fighting his way back past Fernandez and Piszcyk. He then closed the 1.4s gap to Jonsson, and made his move for the lead on lap nine of an eventual 14, but would later be stripped of the win for running off track in the lead-up to that pass.
With positions swapped, Jonsson was declared the winner with Al Dhaheri second once more and Piszcyk completing the podium. Fernandez was fourth in front of Xcel team-mate Aryaman Bansal.
Results round-up
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Rashid Al Dhaheri Mumbai Falcons 28m27.489s
2 Gustav Jonsson Pinnacle Motorsport +1.231s
3 Zhenrui Chi Mumbai Falcons +1.899s
4 Kai Daryanani Evans GP +2.856s
5 Jimmy Piszcyk AGI Sport +3.129s
6 Kabir Anurag Xcel Motorsport +7.172s
7 Salim Hanna Mumbai Falcons +8.345s
8 Nicolas Stati AGI Sport +10.871s
9 August Raber Yas Heat +12.558s
10 Chase Fernandez Xcel Motorsport +12.641s
Pole: Al Dhaheri, 2m01.378s
Fastest lap: Al Dhaheri, 2m02.482s
Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Anurag 29m01.588s
2 Al Dhaheri +0.934s
3 Piszcyk +0.926s
4 Daryanani +1.205s
5 Hanna +2.027s
6 Stati +3.841s
7 Jonsson +4.496s
8 Raber +6.755s
9 Davide Larini Pinnacle Motorsport +15.371s
10 Aryaman Bansal Xcel Motorsport +15.888s
FL: Al Dhaheri, 2m02.140s
Race 3 (14 laps)
1 Jonsson 28m50.800s
2 Al Dhaheri -2.780s
3 Piszcyk +0.108s
4 Fernandez +9.996s
5 Bansal +12.022s
6 Larini +13.388s
7 Stati +14.367s
8 Cole Hewetson +16.186s
9 Daryanani +17.980s
10 Raber +20.118s
P: Al Dhaheri, 2m00.997s
FL: Al Dhaheri, 2m02.195s
Championship standings
1 Al Dhaheri 61 2 Jonsson 49 3 Piszcyk 40 4 Anurag 33 5 Daryanani 26 6 Stati 18 7 Hanna 16 8 Chi 15 9 Fernandez 13 10 Bansal 11