Photo: F4 Spain
Andres Cardenas and Theophile Nael were the winners of Spanish Formula 4’s Sunday races at Jerez.
The grid for race two – the day’s first race – was set from drivers’ second-best laps from Q1 on Saturday, with Cardenas earning pole by 0.059 seconds over Campos Racing team-mate Enzo Deligny with a 1m43.101s lap.
Cardenas held the lead at the start, while drama behind led to Georgi Zhuravskiy pitting at the end of lap one. The debuting Thomas Strauven – this year’s WSK Super Master Series runner-up on OK karts – stopped on track on lap two and that led to the safety car coming out.
Racing resumed on lap five, and Valerio Rinicella passed Nael for third. There was then little battling at the front, with the safety car appearing on lap 11 and red flags a lap later after Luciano Morano and Alexander Abkhazava crashed out.
On laps six and seven there was some intense battling over sixth place, with Noah Lisle taking the position ahead of Matteo De Palo. Jesse Carrasquedo Jr lost eighth place to a two-second penalty for track limits abuse, meaning Christian Ho took the position after he had battled past Ricardo Gracia and Jeronimo Berrio.
Q2 had occurred earlier in the day to set the grid for race three, and 10 different drivers spent time in provisional pole position before Nael set a 1m42.473s to secure first place on the grid. A late improvement by Rinicella meant Nael was fastest by 0.091s, with Ho and Cardenas 0.252s and 0.258s behind. The top 17 were spread by 0.957s.
It was a peaceful start to the race, but a race-ending off for Pablo Sarrazin at turn five on lap four led to the safety car being called and more drama as Berrio went to pass Alex Ninovic under safety car conditions. Berrio forced him off track and then they collided in the gravel while Maxi Restrepo and Carl Bennett crashed out. Berrio continued, and Ninovic retired in the pits.
Racing resumed on lap eight and Nael gradually pulled away, eventully finishing 4.881s clear of Rinicella. Keanu Al Azhari took several attempts before he successfully passed De Palo for fifth, eventually doing so on the last lap in a move that enabled Deligny and later Lisle to get by De Palo too.
Results round-up
Race 2 (11 laps)
1 Andres Cardenas Campos Racing 20m41.591s
2 Enzo Deligny Campos Racing +1.122s
3 Valerio Rinicella MP Motorsport +1.722s
4 Theophile Nael Sainteloc Racing +2.573s
5 Noah Stromsted Campos Racing +3.135s
6 Noah Lisle Carlin +4.079s
7 Matteo De Palo Campos Racing +4.563s
8 Christian Ho Campos Racing +6.192s
9 Jeronimo Berrio MP Motorsport +6.690s
10 Ricardo Gracia Monlau Motorsport +7.437s
Pole: Cardenas, 1m43.101s
FL: Cardenas, 1m43.733s
Race 3 (18 laps)
1 Nael
2 Rinicella +4.881s
3 Ho +5.332s
4 Cardenas +5.894s
5 Keanu Al Azhari MP Motorsport +11.779s
6 Deligny +12.435s
7 Lisle +12.863s
8 De Palo +13.491s
9 Stromsted +13.779s
10 Pedro Clerot MP Motorsport +16.421s
P: Nael, 1m42.473s
FL: Nael, 1m43.950s
Championship standings
1 Nael 196 2 Rinicella 141 3 Deligny 123 4 Ho 120 5 Clerot 109 6 Stromsted 96 7 De Palo 91 8 Al Azhari 79 9 Cardenas 63 10 Berrio 33