Photo: F4 CEZ
Jenzer Motorsport’s Reno Francot and Ethan Ischer took a win and a second place each in Formula 4 Central European Zone’s fifth round at Brno in the Czech Republic.
As a result, Francot maintains his 18-point lead over Ischer before the championship heads to Hungary’s new Balaton Park circuit for the final round in October.
Having only qualified fourth, Ischer made a perfect start from the second row in race one, drawing alongside poleman Francot on the run down to turn onw. Attempting an optimistic move around the outside, he made a small mistake, running slightly wide and allowing his team-mate to pull back in front.
The race quickly settled down into a four-car train at the front, with Michael Sauter (Sauter Engineering+Design) and Jenzer’s Mathias Bjerre Jakobsen close behind the front two.
The high tyre degradation around the Brno circuit meant that tyre performance dropped off noticeably after a couple of laps, and laptimes began to creep up.
Despite maintaining pressure on Francot throughout the race, Ischer was unable to challenge his team-mate for victory.
Oliver Michl took fifth for Gender Racing Team, ahead of the fourth Jenzer entry piloted by Max Karhan.
Series debutant Roman Roubicek finished a distant seventh, while mechanical problems prevented SAPE Motorsport’s Miroslav Mikes from taking the start.
With the results of race one determining the grid for race two, Francot lined up on pole with Ischer alongside on the front row.
However, it was the Swiss driver who made another perfect getaway to take a comfortable lead into the first corner.
Initially, Ischer was able to extend the gap to over a second but from half-distance Francot closed onto his tail as the tyre performance dropped off significantly. Ischer withheld the pressure to take the chequered flag with a gap of 0.67s.
Michl was another to nail the start, accelerating between the second-row pair of Sauter and Jakobsen to briefly take third before Sauter regained the position around the outside of Turn 1.
Jakobsen demoted Michl further around the opening lap but Michl closed back onto his tail to take fourth on the line by just 0.1s.
Starting from the back after his issues earlier, Mikes fought up to take sixth from Karhan, with Roubicek almost a minute further back in eighth.
Results
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Reno Francot Jenzer Motorsport 26m58.790s
2 Ethan Ischer Jenzer Motorsport +1.053s
3 Michael Sauter Sauter Engineering+Design +2.199s
4 Mathias Bjerre Jakobsen Jenzer Motorsport +6.580s
5 Oliver Michl Gender Racing Team +17.230s
6 Max Karhan Jenzer Motorsport +21.366s
7 Roman Roubicek JMT Racing +1m53.738s
DNS Miroslav Mikes SAPE Motorsport
Fastest lap: Sauter, 2m03.037s
Race 2 (12 laps)
1 Ethan Ischer Jenzer Motorsport 25m13.063s
2 Reno Francot Jenzer Motorsport +0.673s
3 Michael Sauter Sauter Engineering+Design +9.233s
4 Oliver Michl Gender Racing Team +14.601s
5 Mathias Bjerre Jakobsen Jenzer Motorsport+14.719s
6 Miroslav Mikes SAPE Motorsport +16.479s
7 Max Karhan Jenzer Motorsport +19.481s
8 Roman Roubicek JMT Racing +1m16.355s
Fastest lap: Ischer, 2m04.871s
Championship standings
1 Francot 213 2 Ischer 201 3 Sauter 143 4 Jakobsen 106 5 Michl 98 6 Mikes 61 7 Egozi 50 8 Taylor 43 9 Karhan 32 10 Safranek 30