Photo: Meritus GP
Andrej Petrovic moved into the Saudi Arabian Formula 4 points lead in round two at Kuwait Motor Town.
Suleiman Zanfari was the pacesetter through Friday, topping practice by 0.116 seconds and then qualifying by 0.056s over Kirill Kutkov. Petrovic qualified third, 0.161s off pole, with Oscar Wurz fourth.
The day ended with race one, which along with race four awards full points while races two and three offered half points despite being longer.
Zanfari was unchallenged by Kutskov off the line as the latter stalled and dropped to sixth. Wurz moved into second, but was already 2.5s behind Zanfari by the end of lap one, with Petrovic in third and clear of Saqer Al-Maosherji and Federico Al Rifai.
By the end of the 10-lap race there was a gap of 4.895s between the top two, and a further 6.436s to the queue of cars led by Petrovic. Hamda Al Qubaisi passed Omar Aldereyaane for seventh on lap six and joined the queue on the last lap, but she and Kutskov got track limits penalties so Aldereyaane finished ahead of both.
Laura Villars started on reversed-grid pole for race two on Saturday morning, and despite a good launch had lost the lead to Faisal Al-Kabbani by turn five. Zanfari spun at tun two, while Kutskov and Wurz had a race-ending collision.
The safety car was summoned, and racing did not resume until lap five. Al Rifai passed Villars, with Aldereyaane behind them in fourth until he dropped down the order the next lap.
Al Rifai challenged Al-Kabbani for the lead and successfully took it, while Petrovic relegated Villars to fourth. Al-Maosherji and Zanfari were next to pass Villars on lap eight, with Aldereyaane recovering and pressuring Petrovic on lap 10.
Zanfari briefly got involved in their battle, then on lap 11 Al-Kabbani ran wide and dropped to fourth. His attempt to gain back a place at turn one on the last lap resulted in him hitting Al-Maosherji’s rear-left wheel and launching into the gravel trap.
Al Rifai won by 3.765s over Petrovic, with Aldereyaane third and Al-Maosherji still able to finish fourth.
Villars had reversed-grid pole again for race three, but immediately lost the lead to Al-Kabbani and was down to seventh at turn two when she was spun out by Wurz.
Al-Maosherji took the lead later in the lap before the safety car appeared, then after the restart pulled away to win by 3.148s over Aldereyaane who had passed Al-Kabbani on lap six.
Al-Kabbani dropped 9.5s behind and on the last lap got passed by Al Rifai. But he took back third at the last corner and Al Rifai secured fourth in a photo finish against Petrovic and Kutskov.
Al Qubaisi and Wurz passed Zanfari on lap 10, then a diving move by Wurz on Al Qubaisi two laps later meant he took seventh.
Zanfari had pole for race four, but a slow start meant Petrovic took the lead before turn one and never looked back, taking victory and the points lead. Al Rifai pressured Zanfari late on, and Kutskov was fourth.
Results round-up
Race 1 (10 laps)
1 Suleiman Zanfari 20m29.795s
2 Oscar Wurz +4.895s
3 Andrej Petrovic +11.331s
4 Saqer Al-Maosherji +11.506s
5 Federico Al Rifai +12.351s
6 Omar Aldereyaane +13.696s
7 Kirill Kutskov +17.572s
8 Hamda Al Qubaisi +18.210s
9 Faisal Al-Kabbani +36.793s
10 Juancho Brobio +39.452s
Pole: Zanfari, 2m01.714s
Fastest lap: Zanfari, 2m02.423s
Race 2 (12 laps)
1 Al Rifai 29m06.880s
2 Petrovic +3.765s
3 Aldereyaane +4.283s
4 Al-Maosherji +6.039s
5 H Al Qubaisi +6.724s
6 Zanfari +7.213s
7 Laura Villars +9.335s
8 Brobio +10.537s
9 Jabor Al-Thani +36.292s
10 Abdulaziz Abuzenadah +1m53.012s
FL: Al Rifai, 2m03.879s
Race 3 (13 laps)
1 Al-Maosherji 31m24.328s
2 Aldereyaane +3.148s
3 Al-Kabbani +12.732s
4 Al Rifai +13.348s
5 Petrovic +13.432s
6 Kutskov +13.452s
7 Wurz +15.449s
8 H Al Qubaisi +17.789s
9 Zanfari +24.610s
10 Abdullah Al Qubaisi +29.144s
FL: Al-Maosherji, 2m03.179s
Race 4 (10 laps)
1 Petrovic 20m35.134s
2 Zanfari +1.772s
3 Al Rifai +2.236s
4 Kutskov +3.138s
5 Wurz +3.545s
6 Aldereyaane +5.424s
7 H Al Qubaisi +14.975s
8 Al-Maosherji +15.453s
9 Al-Kabbani +22.795s
10 A Al Qubaisi +37.769s
FL: Petrovic, 2m02.950s
Championship standings
1 Petrovic 94 2 Zanfari 92 3 Al Rifai 86 4 Al-Maosherji 76.5 5 Kutskov 59 6 H Al Qubaisi 54.5 7 Aldereyaane 51.5 8 Wurz 37 9 Al-Kabbani 22 10 Villars 8