Photo: Duda Bairros / Vicar
Matheus Comparatto and Alvaro Cho won the Brazilian Formula 4 races on the support bill of Formula 1’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The initial schedule for the weekend had practice and qualifying taking place on Friday, race one running on Saturday morning, race two following at the end of the day and then race three concluding the morning action at Interlagos on Sunday.
Bassani Racing’s Matheus Comparatto was fastest in the 40-minute practice session, setting a 1m35.893s to lead Cavaleiro Sports’ Ethan Nobels by 0.041 seconds around what is a short lap. Rogerio Grotta was third, 0.237s off the top, and Filippo Fiorentino was fourth.
The sky became cloudy ahead of qualifying, and there was an early red flag interruption caused by TMG Racing’s Fiorentino going off. His team-mate Celo Hahn caused another stoppage later on, leaving just four minutes on the clock when the next restart occurred.
TMG’s Alvaro Cho looked to have secured pole for race three as qualifying entered its final momnets, but Nobels then managed to set a 1m34.902s that put him ahead by 0.122s. Pepe Souza (Cavaleiro), Comparatto and Ciro Sobral (TMG) completed the top five.
Drivers’ second-best laptimes set the race one grid, and Nobels again clinched pole. A 1m35.029s earned him to spot by 0.169s over Souza, with Cho a further 0.036s slower and TMG’s Arthur Pavie in fourth.
Race one did go ahead as planned, and Nobels started well but could not keep the lead for long. Souza snuck past, then Nobels reclaimed first place before the end of the opening lap. Cho later cleared Souza and set about pressuring Nobels, eventually spending half a lap going side-by-side with him. At one point it got too close and they collided, with damage to both cars and the safety car being summoned.
Souza moved back ahead for the restart, ahead of Grotta and Comparatto. It did not take long for points leader Comparatto to get into second, then at the race’s halfway point he took the lead. The top two was set from that point, while Bassani’s Gino Trappa passed Grotta then tried to stay with the leaders.
Fiorentino recovered from his disastrous qualifying to finish fifth, a position he had to battle past Cho for.
A storm hit Sao Paulo on Saturday afternoon, flooding parts of the Interlagos track and causing a reworking of the event schedule. Brazilian F4’s second race was cancelled, with race three moved to earlier in the morning on Sunday to avoid another storm that was due.
However it was still raining when drivers returned to track, and race three began behind the safety car. When green flag action began, Cho passed Nobels for the lead and was pulling away when the safety car neutralised racing action again due to Sobral, Trappa and Cecilia Rabelo going off.
There was only seven minutes when racing got going again, and Comparatto conceded third to Souza by going off. Cho and Nobels fought hard in the rain, and were split by 0.797s at the finish. Comparatto later got back into third, but was then disqualified over technical irregularities.
Results round-up
Race 1 (19 laps)
1 Matheus Comparatto Bassani Racing 31m38.632s
2 Pepe Souza Cavaleiro Sports +1.138s
3 Gino Trappa Bassani Racing +1.795s
4 Rogerio Grotta Cavaleiro Sports +6.602s
5 Filippo Fiorentino TMG Racing +15.862s
6 Alvaro Cho TMG Racing +16.411s
7 Rafaela Ferreira TMG Racing +19.073s
8 Lucca Zucchini Cavaleiro Sports +25.882s
9 Ciro Sobral TMG Racing +28.007s
10 Celo Hahn TMG Racing +29.637s
Pole: Ethan Nobels, 1m35.029s
Fastest lap: unknown
Race 3 (10 laps)
1 Cho 23m27.366s
2 Nobels Cavaleiro Sports +0.797s
3 Arthur Pavie TMG Racing +5.558s
4 Zucchini +7.749s
5 Fiorentino +8.599s
6 Grotta +14.938s
7 Ferreira +15.078s
8 Souza +23.373s
Ret Sobral
Ret Trappa
P: Nobels, 1m34.902s
FL: unknown
Championship standings
1 Comparatto 219 2 Cho 211 3 Nobels 182 4 Ferreira 160 5 Trappa 117 6 Pavie 116 7 Grotta 114 8 Sobral 106 9 Zucchini 98 10 Souza 55