Photo: F4 UAE
Prema duo Doriane Pin and Rashid Al Dhaheri took the pole positions in Formula 4 United Arab Emirates qualifying at Yas Marina Circuit.
Pin clinched her first pole in single-seater racing in Q1, and did so by just 0.009 seconds over Mumbai Falcons’ Kean Nakamura Berta. His team-mate Freddie Slater was a further 0.083s behind in third, with Yas Heat Academy’s Keanu Al Azhari and Al Dhaheri also within three tenths of a second of pole.
Many of the frontrunners set their personal bests on their fifth lap of seven, with little change to the order in the final minutes of the session. Alex Powell, another of the Mumbai Falcons drivers, went sixth fastest with his final lap but could not challenge the pace of his team-mates.
R-ace GP’s Jules Caranta missed the previous round and marked his return by qualifying 13th, while down in 20th and 21st were Pinnacle Motorsport’s Hiyu Yamakoshi and PHM Racing’s debutant Davide Larini, who has replaced the Formula 3-bound Nikita Bedrin.
Yamakoshi did two F4 UAE rounds in 2023 before racing in French F4, where he came fifth in the standings with five podiums. He also came 14th in an incomplete Spanish F4 campaign.
Larini raced for AKM Motorsport and then PHM in Euro 4 and Italian F4 last year, and the 16-year-old Italian came 29th in the former and 32nd in the latter with a 14th place being his best race result.
A further eight places lower in Q1 was Prema’s debutant Tomass Stolcermanis.
Al Dhaheri lowered the pace in Q2, and Nakamura was best of the rest once again as this time he missed out on pole by 0.128s. Al Azhari was third fastest, 0.211s off pole, with Enzo Deligny (R-ace), Powell, Enzo Yeh (R-ace), Dion Gowda (Mumbai Falcons), Pin, Caranta and Reeza Seewooruthun (Hitech GP) completing the top 10.
While Stolcermanis improved to 17th, points leader Slater struggled to 21st place and was 1.236s off the pace, and Raphael Narac – who has left R-ace for Sainteloc Racing – could only qualify 29th.
Qualifying round-up
Q1 results
1 Doriane Pin Prema 1m55.284s
2 Kean Nakamura Berta Mumbai Falcons +0.009s
3 Freddie Slater Mumbai Falcons +0.092s
4 Keanu Al Azhari Yas Heat +0.148s
5 Rashid Al Dhaheri Prema +0.282s
6 Alex Powell Mumbai Falcons +0.396s
7 Enzo Deligny R-ace GP +0.716s
8 Dion Gowda Mumbai Falcons +0.721s
9 Deagen Fairclough Hitech GP +0.729s
10 Gabriel Stilp Hitech GP +0.875s
Q2 results
1 Al Dhaheri 1m55.067s
2 Nakamura +0.128s
3 Al Azhari +0.211s
4 Deligny +0.394s
5 Powell +0.413s
6 Enzo Yeh R-ace GP +0.533s
7 Gowda +0.594s
8 Pin +0.642s
9 Jules Caranta R-ace GP +0.749s
10 Reza Seewooruthun Hitech GP +0.837s