Photo: F4 SEA
Evans GP’s Alex Sawer crushed a depleted opposition in the Formula 4 South East Asia season opener at Sepang.
There were two pre-season test sessions on Thursday, and Formula Regional racer Sawer topped both by over a second.
Pre-event testing followed on Friday morning, and BlackArts Racing’s Inigo Anton led Evans GP’s Seth Gilmore by 0.818 seconds in session one. Gilmore pipped Anton by 0.078s in session two, with Sawer absent.
A single practice session took place next, and Gilmore was quickest by 1.285s over Origine Motorsport’s FRegional-experienced Zhongwei Wang.
Sawer returned for qualifying on Saturday morning. In Q1 he set a 2m08.857s to claim race one pole by 0.479s over Gilmore, with Anton 0.853s behind. The nine-car field was spread by 3.931s on single-lap pace.
The pace was lowered to 2m08.232s by Sawer in Q2, which earned him race three pole by 0.839s. Gilmore was second again, 0.264s ahead of Anton.
Race one began on a damp track behind the safety car, with most drivers choosing wet-weather tyres for the formation lap. BlackArts’ Joshua Berry went for slicks and spun, but that did not deter his rivals who switched to slicks once on the grid.
The field were released to race on lap three, and Gilmore went for the outside at turn one but could not get a pass done. Berry spun again at turn three, and this time could not restart so the safety car was called back out as Sawer began lap four.
Racing resumed on lap five, and Sawer ran away. On lap six, Rishon Rajeev dropped from fourth to last with a spin at turn three, with Wang inheriting fourth after passing Cheng Meng the previous lap.
Sawer won the 11-lap race by 5.897s, and after several laps of pressure Gilmore was able to pull away from Anton by over three seconds. Rajeev recovered one spot, and Wang’s fourth place put him on reversed-grid pole for race two on Sunday.
Anton got alonside Wang down the pit straight at the start, and Gilmore went to the inside but had to back out of a move at turn one that meant Sawer slipped past.
Wang then slowed dramatically and fell to the back, and Sawer was now pursuing Anton. He took the lead around the outside of turn one on lap two, defended a counter-attack at turn four but then Anton got alongside through turns six and seven.
The fight for victory ended there, and Sawer built a 18.8s lead over Anton in just 12 laps. Gilmore lost six seconds on lap five, and was passed by Berry – who had cleared Ngyuen at the final corner the previous lap – on lap six.
Front wing damage meant Gilmore soon pitted, but he finished sixth as Anton and Berry were disqualified and it put Rajeev and Nguyen Hoai into second and third.
Gilmore had a three-place grid penalty for race three, easing Sawer’s route to another dominant win. Anton stalled on the formation lap and fell to the back, but reclaimed his grid position and ran third early on.
Gilmore collided with Rajeev as he passed him for second at the start of lap four, but remarkably both continued. Torrential rain hit on lap six, and the safety car was summoned. Drivers pitted for wet tyres on lap seven, but red flags waved when they headed back out for lap eight and the results were taken from the end of lap six.
Results round-up
Race 1 (11 laps)
1 Alex Sawer Evans GP 27m25.751s
2 Seth Gilmore Evans GP +5.897s
3 Inigo Anton BlackArts Racing +9.212s
4 Zhongwei Wang Origine Motorsport +18.600s
5 Cheng Meng Evans GP +19.200s
6 Nam Anh Nguyen Hoai BlackArts Racing +27.211s
7 Rishon Rajeev BlackArts Racing +30.586s
8 Thomas Lee Evans GP +32.765s
Ret Joshua Berry BlackArts Racing
Pole: Sawer, 2m08.857s
Fastest lap: Sawer, 2m09.935s
Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Sawer 28m21.166s
2 Rajeev +36.487s
3 Nyugen Hoai +39.623s
4 Meng +40.533s
5 Lee +1m07.481s
6 Gilmore +1m11.705s
Ret Wang
DSQ Anton
DSQ Berry
FL: Sawer, 2m09.722s
Race 3 (6 laps)
1 Sawer 13m33.033s
2 Gilmore +10.125s
3 Rajeev +19.803s
4 Anton +22.047s
5 Wang +23.166s
6 Berry +27.744s
7 Lee +30.487s
8 Meng +43.197s
9 Nguyen Hoai +1m09.961s
P: Sawer, 2m08.232s
FL: Sawer, 2m09.849s
Championship standings
1 Sawer 94 2 Anton 55 3 Rajeev 48 4 Gilmore 46 5 Meng 30 6 Nguyen Hoai 29 7 Wang 27 8 Lee 22 9 Berry 20