Enzo Deligny gets first F4 UAE victory in penultimate race of season

Photo: F4 UAE

R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny won Formula 4 United Arab Emirates’ reversed-grid race at Dubai Autodrome, a victory set up by being penalised the previous day.

The Red Bull junior finished seventh on-the-road in race one on Saturday, but a five-second penalty applied post-race dropped him to 11th. Sainteloc Racing’s Yevan David got an identical penalty which dropped him from 12th to 19th. That meant R-ace’s Luka Sammalisto inherited 12th place and therefore reversed-grid pole for race two.

There was pre-race drama for his team-mate Enzo Yeh as his car crawled out of his seventh place grid spot on the formation lap then stopped, with the rest of the field passing him and consigning him to starting from the back.

When the lights went out for lap one, Sammalisto was the R-ace driver falling down the order as he was passed by Deligny off the line then by Prema’s Tomass Stolcermais. Hitech GP’s Deagen Fairclough went around the outside of him at turn one, and Yas Heat Academy’s Keanu Al Azhari overtook him too a few corners later.

Deligny ended the opening lap in front after some weaving on the back straight, and from thereon he maintained a gap of around 0.8 to 1.1 seconds over Stolcermanis to take his first win.

Stolcermanis looked settled in second until lap 10 of 15, when Fairclough and Al Azhari homed in on the back of his car. Al Azhari had dived past Fairclough on lap two before the latter regained third at the hairpin when Al Azhari slid wide, and that enabled Sammalisto to get alongside and pass Al Azhari at the end of the lap.

Al Azhari got himself back in front before turn one, then he prowled behind Fairclough but did not launch another attack until the penultimate lap where once again he took third but then lost the position a few corners later.

On the last lap he tried again, going around the outside of turn one but dropping back behind Fairclough by turn four. Fairclough weaved down the back straight then defended in a way that backed Al Azhari into Freddie Slater.

The battling had allowed Stolcermanis to sprint away in second and for Fairclough to secure third, while Slater nabbed fourth in a photo finish.

Slater had fought with Jack Beeton in the first laps, passed Jules Caranta on lap three then on lap 12 overtook Sammalisto at the hairpin. Caranta finished seventh by holding off Rashid Al Dhaheri, who in turn held off Kean Nakamura Berta and Jack Beeton. Alex Powell had been ahead of them before a failed move on Caranta dropped him to 11th.

Deligny’s penalty meant Al Azhari’s championship lead grew by a point pre-race, and it grew by another point as Slater took over from Nakamura as his closest rival.

Gabriel Stilp was the only retiree, exiting the race after lap six contact with Tiago Rodrigues.

Race results (15 laps)