Photo: F4UAE
The Formula 4 United Arab Emirates title battle reduced to three drivers in the penultimate round at Yas Marina Circuit, which featured four different winners.
Xcel Motorsport’s points leader Dilano Van’t Hoff set the qualifying pace, with Cram Motorsport’s Enzo Trulli three places behind him on the race one grid.
Trulli lost a spot to Xcel’s Kirill Smal off the line, while Van’t Hoff fended off Abu Dhabi Racing’s Hamda Al Qubaisi into the first corner. As those ahead went wide, Trulli rose from fifth to second through the second corner.
Pepe Marti (Xcel) also cleared Al Qubaisi as the cars entered the circuit’s Corkscrew section, but Al Qubaisi cut a chicane and moved up to second.
She returned the position, but span Van’t Hoff around a lap later and crashed out as Trulli passed Van’t Hoff around the outside to lead.
Van’t Hoff fell to sixth as the safety car came out, and Trulli sprinted away on the restart. Smal followed, while Van’t Hoff immediately fought his way up to third. Another safety car period didn’t hurt Trulli, but cost Van’t Hoff third to Marti.
Marti claimed race two pole, and led lights-to-flag for his first win. The fight for second ended with Trulli prevailing, ahead of Van’t Hoff and Al Qubaisi.
Van’t Hoff took race three pole, but was beaten off the line by Al Qubaisi.
The Emirati again cut the chicane after duelling with Van’t Hoff, extending her lead and leaving Van’t Hoff to fight with Trulli and Smal.
She was penalised 10 seconds for her offenses, but pulled away to win. Trulli beat Van’t Hoff in their fight for second, and Marti snatched fourth from Smal, who then lost fifth to a 5s track limits penalty.
Track limits cost Smal in the reversed grid race four, where he finished second to Mucke Motorsport’s Jonas Ried. Both were penalised 5s though, handing Xcel’s Jamie Day victory. Van’t Hoff was disqualified for using a part in non-homologated specification.
Results round-up
Race 1 (11 laps)
1 Enzo Trulli Cram Motorsport 25m10.529s
2 Kirill Smal Xcel Motorsport +2.212s
3 Pepe Marti Xcel Motorsport +3.771s
4 Dilano Van’t Hoff Xcel Motorsport +3.855s
5 Jamie Day Xcel Motorsport +4.419s
6 Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak Xcel Motorsport +4.700s
7 Enzo Scionti Cram Motorsport +7.819s
8 Jonas Ried Mucke Motorsport +9.247s
9 Noam Abramczyk Xcel Motorsport +11.304s
10 Alex Partyshev Xcel Motorsport +36.243s
Pole: Van’t Hoff, 1m56.911s
Fastest lap: Trulli, 1m58.177s
Race 2 (12 laps)
1 Marti 26m05.513s
2 Trulli +0.506s
3 Van’t Hoff +1.361s
4 Hamda Al Qubaisi Abu Dhabi Racing +1.605s
5 Smal +1.993s
6 Abramczyk +2.266s
7 Partyshev +2.677s
8 Ried +3.477s
9 Day +3.663s
10 Scionti +3.914s
P: Marti, 1m57.211s
FL: Trulli, 1m57.770s
Race 3 (13 laps)
1 Al Qubaisi 25m42.023s
2 Van’t Hoff +0.802s
3 Trulli +1.243s
4 Marti +10.518s
5 Day +13.265s
6 Scionti +13.510s
7 Ried +14.184s
8 Smal +18.051s
9 Abramczyk +18.407s
10 Inthraphuvasak +23.1972s
P: Van’t Hoff, 1m56.609s
FL: Van’t Hoff, 1m57.198s
Race 4
1 Day 12 laps
2 Inthraphuvasak +1.273s
3 Ried +4.138s
4 Smal +4.592s
5 Trulli +6.710s
6 Scionti +8.548s
7 Abramczyk +9.014s
8 Al Qubaisi +10.244s
9 Partyshev +28.064s
Ret Marti
FL: Smal, 1m58.016s
Championship standings
1 Van’t Hoff 275 2 Trulli 274 3 Smal 223 4 Al Qubaisi 177 5 Marti 123 6 Inthraphuvasak 123 7 Day 109 8 Francesco Braschi 77 9 Nikita Bedrin 71 10 Reid 53