Ean Eyckmans becomes a Spanish F4 winner at Jerez

Photo: All Road Management

MP Motorsport’s Ean Eyckmans won race one of Spanish Formula 4’s round at Jerez on September 20.

Pre-event testing took place the preceding day, and in session one Thomas Strauven led a Campos Racing one-two. He set a 1m43.428s to narrowly beat Jan Przyrowski and MP’s Rene Lammers to top spot by 0.022 and 0.041 seconds respectively.

Christopher Feghali (Drivex School), Nathan Tye (Rodin Motorsport) and Eyckmans were all within 0.2s of Strauven, and a second covered the top 25.

Only Tecnicar Motorsport’s Lewis Wherrell, the slowest of the 34 drivers to test, improved in the second session.

Strauven posted a 1m44.114s to top the afternoon timesheet, leading Przyrowski again and by a larger 0.112s. Lammers was third again, 0.031s slower than Przyrowski, and Eyckmans was 0.172s off in fourth.

Przyrowski came to the fore in free practice on Saturday morning, setting a 1m43.443s to lead Strauven by 0.203s. Lammers was 0.327s back, and 0.001s split MP’s Niklas Schaufler and MP’s Juan Cota in fourth and fifth. A second split the top 16.

Qualifying also went Przyrowski’s way, and he was one of the only drivers who was able to improve late on. A 1m43.908s was enough to earn him race one pole, by 0.185s over Eyckmans and 0.189s over Cota.

TC Racing’s Santino Panetta and Feghali traded top spot at first, then Rodin Motorsport’s Nathan Tye lowered the pace to 1m44.700s. Przyrowski went fastest by 0.29s almost 10 minutes in, improved next time by and then again two laps later by 0.071s.

Strauven was fourth fastest, 0.215s off pole, and Lammers qualified fifth. Reno Francot made it four MP drivers in the top six, with Tye and Campos’s Noah Monteiro also within half a second of Przyrowski. Cota started sixth due to a three-place grid penalty.

Przyrowski failed to get going when race one began and team-mate Miguel Costa ploughed into him. Eyckmans was slow off the line, and Lammers got straight into the lead. Strauven had to take to the grass to get around Przyrowski’s car but still emerged in third behind Eyckmans. However Francot got past him before the safety car was then called out.

Racing resumed on lap four, and the main battle on track was between Schaufler and Drivex’s Gino Trappa for ninth.

Campos’s Matus Ryba crashed out and triggered another safety car period, and Lammers bunched up the field for the next restart on lap nine. That helped Feghali pass Tye for sixth, but Tye got back past and then Feghali lost two more spots.

There were two spinners, but racing continued and the top three remained close until Lammers took a drive-through penalty for jumping the start.

That handed victory to Eyckmans, and Francot then came under pressure from Strauven who tried a diving move late in lap 13 then forced Francot into some messy defending on the last lap.

Strauven got past, and although Francot got back alongside and remained there for several corners it only then left him vulnerable to attack from Cota. They almost collided, and Cota moved ahead for third.

Monteiro finished fifth after a penalty demoted Tye to eighth, with Schaufler and Feghali between them.

Race results (15 laps)