Bondarev wins again in race one of UAE4’s return trip to Abu Dhabi

Photo: Top Speed

Mumbai Falcons’ Sasha Bondarev won the first race of a UAE4 round at Yas Marina Circuit for a second successive week last Saturday.

He set the pace in pre-event testing on Friday, a 1m46.354s putting him 0.286 seconds ahead of R-ace GP’s Kenzo Craigie and 0.314s clear of Yas Heat Academy’s Adam Al Azhari. Hitech GP’s Scott Lindblom was fourth, 0.597s off the pace, and a second split the top 14 in the 39-car field.

Bondarec remained on top in practice, setting a 1m46.085s to edge R-ace’s Andy Consani by 0.077s and Lindblom by 0.27s. Prema’s Christian Costoya and Craigie were the only other drivers within half a second of him, and R-ace’s round one frontrunner Emily Cotty was 2.25s off the pace in 34th.

The next morning there was change at the top as failure to improve on his last two laps in the first qualifying session led to Bondarev being beaten to race one pole by 0.292s. Lindblom took top spot, with Consani 0.427s behind in third.

Just 0.059s split Niccolo Maccagnani (Mumbai Falcons), Craigie, Al Azhari and Costoya in the next four positions, and the next best driver not run by Prema was Evans GP’s Kasper Schormans in 10th. A second covered the top 12, and Cotty qualified 15th.

Schormans was a new addition to the field, replacing Ben Nguyen, while Cash Felber joined Xcel Motorsport and Sun Anzhe made his debut with Pinnacle Motorsport one week late after Vladimir Verkholantsev took his place in the team’s line-up in round one.

Bondarev struck back against Lindblom in Q2 despite repeating his failure to improve late in the session. This time his best effort, a 1m46.139s, came on his fifth lap of nine and it earned him pole by 0.007s.

Lindblom’s fastest lap was on his third lap of seven, and it was a similar story for most drivers in the top 10. Consani was 0.137s off pole in third, Craigie was a further 0.175s back in fourth and Al Azhari pipped Alp Aksoy Hasan (Mumbai Falcons) and David Cosma Cristofor (Prema) to fifth. This time Cotty was 12th, 0.914s slower than Bondarev.

The fight for victory in race one was settled in the opening lap, and began with Lindblom being slow off the line. He quickly dropped to fourth, and Bondarev led Maccagnani and Consani into the opening corner. Craigie tried passing Lindblom around the outside there too, and Consani took second after going side-by-side with Maccagnani at the next turn.

Lindblom sought to attack Maccagnani too entering the hotel section, and his bold overtaking attempts at turn one of the grand prix layout and the final chicane allowed the top two to break away by several seconds. They were reeled back in on lap two thanks to the presence of the safety car, as Brock Burton (Xcel) and Bernardo ‘Beco’ Bernoldi (Trident) had collided at the chicane.

Racing resumed on lap six, and Lindblom locked up into the first corner back at racing speeds. Later in the lap he went around the outside of Maccagnani at the grand prix layout’s first corner but completed his move off-track and conceded the place he had just taken. But Maccagnani then locked up entering the corkscrew section and Lindblom was ahead again.

Craigie then overtook Maccagnani, and this drama enabled the top two to gap themselves once again. It was a quiet race for them thereon, until the safety car returned for the final two-and-a-half laps due to Lucas Pasquinetti (Xcel) crashing out.

When Maccagnani tried to reclaim places on lap seven he instead ran wide and lost sixth to Al Azhari. Cosma held off Aksoy and Costoya for seventh, and Xcel’s Jarrett Clark finished 10th after Rowan Campbell-Pilling (Pinnacle) spun away the position at the final chicane on lap 12 of 15 and Schormans got a five-second penalty for causing a collision.

Xcel’s Joseph Smith also got a penalty, bringing Cotty up to 12th and earning her reversed-grid pole for race two.

Race results (15 laps)