Home Formula 4Chinese F4 F4 round-up: Elias Seppanen dominates at Sepang, Zijian He wins twice at Shanghai

F4 round-up: Elias Seppanen dominates at Sepang, Zijian He wins twice at Shanghai

by Rachel Harris-Gardiner

Formula 4 South East Asia leader Elias Seppanen won three of the four races at Sepang, where local driver Muizz Musyaffa took his first victory.

The first two races were fairly uneventful, barring a malfunction with the starting lights that caused the planned standing start for race one to be changed to a rolling start. Lucca Allen looked ready to pounce on poleman Seppanen early on, but he was soon caught by Musyaffa and had to settle for third.?

Appropriately, the positions were reversed after the first of the reverse-grid races, with Allen getting the better of Musyaffa behind Seppanen.

The top three had been jostling for position just behind Indian newcomer Sohil Shah. Seppanen managed to get away when Allen ran wide, not long after the Finn had passed Allen for the lead. Musyaffa was caught up in a tussle with Frederico Peters, but prevailed in the end.

The second reverse-grid race was where things got interesting. Shah was the early leader after passing Peters and would have had a chance at the win had he not locked up at Turn 1.

The trio of Seppanen, Musyaffa and Allen took up the slack with their battle, until Seppanen and Allen had contact at Turn 2 trying to overhaul Musyaffa. Allen retired with a puncture and Seppanen was disqualified for exceeding track limits and causing a collision, handing victory to Musyaffa.

Seppanen won again from pole in race four. Allen stayed fairly close but was unable to challenge seriously, while Musyaffa looked to be struggling for grip on the way to third.

Chinese F4 champion Conrad Clark wasn’t able to end his season on on the high he expected, finishing behind Zijian He for the first two races and Shang Zongyi for the third. Smart Life Racing driver He cemented his position as championship runner-up, with Zongyi a distant third but with almost twice as many points as fourth-placed Jingwei Lu.

Clark did take pole, but recurrent engine troubles during the races meant that he was almost two seconds slower than his Chinese rivals. He was happiest with his performance in the reverse-grid third race, in which he got within touching distance of leader Zongyi from seventh on the grid.

Canadian Maxx Ebenal finished third in the first two races, but didn’t start the third – instead handing out the honours.

 

Results round-up?[pole in bold, fastest lap in italics]

South East Asia
Race 1 (9 laps) Race 2 (9 laps)
1 Elias Seppanen 20m14.848s
2 Muizz Musyaffa +3.857s
3 Lucca Allen +6.685s
4 Frederico Peters +15.660s
5 Sohil Shah +19.657s
1 Seppanen 20m28.114s
2 Allen +3.412s
3 Musyaffa +4.441s
4 Peters +4.681s
5 Shah +14.218s
Race 3 (9 laps) Race 4 (9 laps)
1 Musyaffa 20m26.874s
2 Shah +12.904s
3 Peters +14.653s
4 John T Dizon +30.983s
5 Sneha Sharma +32.833s
1 Seppanen 20m11.870s
2 Allen +1.864s
3 Musyaffa +8.340s
4 Peters +9.295s
5 Nico Pino +21.670s
Standings 1 Seppanen 527? ?2 Allen 483? ?3 Shihab Al Habsi 338? ?4 Musyaffa 354? ?5 Josh Smith 303
China
Race 1 (9 laps) Race 2 (9 laps) Race 3 (9 laps)
1 Zijian He 20m14.130s
2 Conrad Clark +2.572s
3 Maxx Ebenal +7.684s
4 Shang Zongyi +13.509s
5 Liu Tiezheng +23.968s
1 He 20m06.929s
2 Clark +1.285s
3 Ebenal +28.946s
4 Zongyi +35.982s
5 Jingwei Lu +38.655s
1 Zongyi 20m23.305s
2 Clark +1.936s
3 He +2.111s
4 Lu +27.796s
5 Tiezheng +30.039s
Standings 1 Clark 379? ?2 He 302? ?3 Zongyi 214? ?4 Lu 111? ?5 Tiezheng 88