Photo: Top Speed
Formula 4 South East Asia returned this weekend, over 46 months since its last races.
The revived championship was supposed to kick off at Zhuhai, but instead held its 2023 season opener at fellow Chinese track Zhuzhou and attracted a 10-car grid of second-generation F4 cars.
The all-Australian combination of AGI Sport and Jack Beeton set the pace in the first qualifying session by a huge 2.473 seconds over R&B Racing’s Fukang Jiang, with Chinese F4 leader Tiago Rodrigues going third fastest.
Wai Hang Kwok failed to get going on the formation lap of race one and so was relegated to a pitlane start, while Rodrigues stalled on the actual start and fell to the back.
Beeton made a strong launch on a wet track and immediately pulled away, with Ethan Ho getting up to second place after much battling with Jiang – and weaving to build tyre temperature – on the opening lap.
Rodrigues had recovered to seventh by lap three, made a diving move on Kunpeng Xiao on lap four, and on lap five used the dry line to pass Zhongwei Wang. He went off on lap six and lost another place to Xiao.
Shimo Zhang succumbed to Rodrigues on lap seven, and further ahead there was battling on lap 11 as Jiang attempted a diving move on Ho for second but went too deep into a corner. Zhang tried to profit but instead ground to a halt, with Jiang passing Ho again but then running wide out of the final corner and dropping to fourth.
He returned to second the next lap when Rodrigues clashes with Ho while trying to passing him, then the safety car appeared as Zhang’s car was cleared.
Racing resumed with one lap to go and Ho retired after contact with Xiao, the latter getting a penalty that dropped him from fourth to seventh.
The top eight was reversed to set the grid for the fully dry race two, with Ho on pole.
Xiao took the lead at turn one, and Beeton was up to third two corners later. He and Ho then collided, with Beeton losing his rear wing and the safety car coming out to move his car.
On the lap five restart Zhang dived down the inside of Xiao for the lead, and Rodrigues went from seventh to fifth. Xiao reclaimed the lead at turn one on lap six, but Zhang got back past and with a broken front wing.
He expertly defended his lead until pitting on lap nine due to be shown the black-and-orange flat. Having ignored the flag for three laps, he was later disqualified.
Xiao was then battling Rodrigues for victory, and once the latter got ahead there was no stopping him until a 10s penalty for his part in the lap one crash meant victory went to Xiao.
Beeton’s car was repaired in time for him to start from pole for race three, having beaten Ho and Rodrigues to pole in Q2.
They sprinted away on lap one, with Rodrigues passing Ho, while there was a four-wide fight for fourth. Two cars spun on dust on the track on lap two, but it was an otherwise calm race dominated by Beeton. Zhang lost third to a five-second penalty for gaining an advantage by going off-track.
Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Jack Beeton AGI Sport
2 Fukang Jiang R&B Racing +1.499s
3 Tiago Rodrigues Asia Racing Team +1.954s
4 Zhongwei Wang R&B Racing +8.334s
5 Yu Zhang Asia Racing Team +11.082s
6 Vivian Siu BlackArts Racing +11.327s
7 Kunpeng Xiao Asia Racing Team +12.348s
8 Ethan Ho Team KRC +1 lap
Ret Shimo Zhang H-Star Racing
Ret Wai Hang Kwok H-Star Racing
Pole: Beeton
Fastest lap: Beeton
Race 2 (14 laps)
1 Xiao 28m01.052s
2 Rodrigues +5.744s
3 Jiang +10.550s
4 Y Zhang +12.351s
5 Wang +17.005s
6 Siu +41.203s
Ret Ho
Ret Kwok
Ret Beeton
DSQ S Zhang
FL: Rodrigues, 1m41.723s
Race 3 (16 laps)
1 Beeton 26m55.772s
2 Rodrigues +16.818s
3 Ho +28.469s
4 Xiao +29.619s
5 S Zhang +30.214s
6 Jiang +34.539s
7 Wang +35.459s
8 Y Zhang +56.784s
9 Kwok +1m34.217s
10 Siu +1 lap
P: Beeton
FL: Beeton, 1m40.425s
Championship standings
1 Rodrigues 51 2 Beeton 50 3 Xiao 43 4 Jiang 41 5 Wang 28 6 Y Zhang 26 7 Ho 19 8 Siu 17 9 S Zhang 10 10 Kwok 2