Photo: F4 SEA
AGI Sport’s Jack Beeton won the Formula 4 South East Asia title in the Sepang season finale.
Prema’s Kean Nakamura Berta topped pre-event testing, practice and qualifying. In Q1 he took pole by a sizeable 0.655s over team-mate Rashid Al Dhaheri, with other team-mate Doriane Pin 0.772s behind in third. Beeton was the only other driver within a second of the pace.
Nakamura Berta went even faster in Q2 to claim race three pole, setting a 2m07.293s. His opposion got closer, with Al Dhaheri 0.287s off pole and Pin 0.52s behind as she qualified third again. Beeton was 3.063s off the pace in 14th, with Asia Racing Team’s Enzo Yeah fourth fastest and 0.903s off pole.
It all went wrong for Nakamura at the start of race one as he stalled, as did AGI’s Peter Bouzinelos from seventh on the grid, and Al Dhaheri swept sharply to the inside to cover off Pin and Beeton.
The top two pulled away while Beeton battled Kai Daryanani for a few corners. Al Dhaheri weaved down the back straight at the end of lap one. Nakamura had fallen to ninth by lap two.
On lap three Beeton passed Pin for second at turn four. Nakamura got into seventh by lap five, and gained another spot on lap six due to Kaishun Liu spinning into retirement.
The safety car came out, eradicating Al Dhaheri’s two-second lead. Racing resumed on lap nine of 12 and Nakamura immediately slipstreamed into fifth. Daryanani locked up at the end of the lap and Nakamura passed him too, but Daryanani took fourth back at turn one next time by and then got defensive.
Nakamura finally passed him at turn four on lap 11 after several near-misses, and in the queue forming behind Bouzinelos overtook three cars. Al Dhaheri won by 3.697s, Beeton resisted Pin’s last-lap attack and Bouzinelos’s recovered from 15th to 10th to earn reversed-grid pole for race two.
Bouzinelos bogged down on the grid the next morning and Kunpeng Xiao squeezed past on his inside to take the lead. He weaved down every straight to try to prevent Bouzinelos from getting back ahead, but exiting turn four on lap the positions changed. A few corners later Daryanani and Nakamura collided, with Al Dhaheri crashing out too.
The safety car led the field until lap five, and Bouzinelos weaved his way down the pit straight. Xaio tried passing him at turn two but made race-ending contact instead. Nicolas Stati inherited the lead over Pin and the safety car returned.
On the next restart, Beeton tried going around the outside of Pin at turn one then she tried getting on the inside of Stati at turn two. They maintained positions, and Stati secured victory when the safety car came out on the penultimate lap due to Yu Zhang crashing out. Beeton became champion in third.
Race three started behind the safety car, and on a dramatic lap two Nakamura dropped behind both of his team-mates and Yuhao Fu rolled out.
The safety car returned and green flags waved again on lap five. Daryanani passed Nakamura for third, then Al Dhaheri and Nakamura fell to the back of the field. It left Pin with a huge lead which she converted into victory over Daryanani and Bouzinelos.
Sepang should have also hosted the Formula Regional Asian Championship finale. FRAC ran from 2018 to 2022, and had a provisional three-round 2023 calendar with a Chinese round in October, followed by visits to Sepang on back-to-back weekends a month later. But only one driver was announced as racing in FRAC, and no events went ahead.
Results round-up
Race 1 (12 laps)
1 Rashid Al Dhaheri Prema 28m54.508s
2 Jack Beeton AGI Sport +3.697s
3 Doriane Pin Prema +4.040s
4 Kean Nakamura Berta +4.652s
5 Kai Daryanani Pinnacle Motorsport +7.923s
6 Enzo Yeh Asia Racing Team +8.633s
7 Nicolas Stati AGI Sport +9.615s
8 Kunpeng Xiao Asia Racing Team +10.155s
9 Yuhao Fu Pinnacle Motorsport +12.305s
10 Peter Bouzinelos AGI Sport +12.395s
Pole: Nakamura, 2m07.764s
Fastest lap: Nakamura, 2m08.912s
Race 2 (10 laps)
1 Stati 28m51.546s
2 Pin +0.548s
3 Beeton +1.058s
4 Lincoln Taylor BlackArts Racing +1.597s
5 Anton Inigo BlackArts Racing +2.177s
6 Fu +2.953s
7 Zhongwei Wang R&B Racing +4.098s
8 Kaishun Liu Pinnacle Motorsport +6.472s
9 Bouzinelos +6.090s
10 “Dragon” B-MAX Racing +7.491s
FL: Bouzinelos, 2m10.960s
Race 3 (10 laps)
1 Pin 27m10.398s
2 Daryanani +5.300s
3 Bouzinelos+7.027s
4 Taylor +7.589s
5 Beeton +9.878s
6 Stati +11.851s
7 Liu +13.268s
8 Inigo +14.704s
9 Yeh +15.647s
10 “Dragon” +23.748s
P: Nakamura, 2m07.293s
FL: Al Dhaheri, 2m08.301s
Championship standings
1 Beeton 130 2 Pin 81 3 Hadrien David 75 4 Xiao 51 5 Tiago Rodrigues 51 6 Nakamura Berta 48 7 Yeh 46 8 Fukang Jiang 41 9 Stati 39 10 Daryanani 36