Praga F4’s Killian Meyer moved into the lead of the Spanish Formula 4 standings in the third round at Motorland Aragon.
Xcel Motorsport’s Shihab Al Habsi started the weekend with pole, but was beaten off the line in race one by title rival Franco Colapinto of Drivex School.
Al Habsi reclaimed the lead on the second lap, with Meyer watching closely from behind. The trio remained in tandem for the first half of the race, with Meyer the fastest of the three despite being in the dirtiest air.
On lap 12 of 15, Colapinto swept around the outside of Al Habsi at the Turn 1 righthander for the lead, with Meyer almost snatching second from Al Habsi at the same corner a lap later.
After nearly a lap of side-by-side action Meyer finally took second place, but the battling had gifted Colapinto space up front and a second win of the season.
Glenn van Berlo took fourth for MP Motorsport, just beating Meyer’s team-mate Carles Martinez.
Al Habsi struck back from pole in race two, taking his first win of the season by 1.554 seconds over MP’s Tijmen van der Helm.
Colapinto separated the two on the grid, but stalled at the start and finished a distant 14th. Meyer initially ran in eighth, and slowly closed in on the those ahead. He took fourth on the penultimate lap when Axel Gnos span battling Martinez, then inherited a podium finish when the latter was penalised.
Although Colapinto topped qualifying, Meyer started the last race from pole and dominated. Colapinto started from last but was up to eighth in a lap, and, after Al Habsi misjudged a move for Tijmen van der Helm for second, he made his way up to third.
He then pitted with damage and dropped back to last, with Al Habsi taking a provisional second and Artem Lobanenko the final podium spot. The no score for Colapinto means Meyer has overtaken him in the standings.
Kakunoshin Ohta started the Japanese F4 season with pole, but it wasn’t until round three at Suzuka that he won. The Honda Formula Dream Project driver controlled both races at the Formula 1 venue, where the top five order was identical.
Ohta’s team-mate Ren Sato stretched his points lead with two second places, with Atsushi Miyake ensuring a podium lockout for the team. OTG’s title contender Togo Suganami was twice fourth.
The second season of Formula Academy Finland kicked off at Botniaring, with returnee Markus Laitala taking a double win. F4 South East Asia title contender Elias Seppanen and F4 SMP’s Nikita Alexandrov ran him close in the first race, but had no answer to his pace in the second encounter.
Results round-up [pole in bold, fastest lap in italics]
| Spain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (15 laps) | Race 2 (11 laps) | Race 3 (15 laps) |
| 1 Franco Colapinto 28m12.044s 2 Killian Meyer +2.402s 3 Shihab Al Habsi +4.300s 4 Glenn van Berlo +13.555s 5 Carles Martinez +13.792s |
1 Al Habsi 20m38.621s 2 Tijmen van der Helm +1.554s 3 Meyer +5.424s 4 Rashed Ghanem +10.086s 5 Axel Gnos +10.271s |
1 Meyer 28m13.452s 2 Al Habsi +4.883s 3 Artem Lobanenko +15.736s 4 Martinez +15.903s 5 Ghanem +16.629s |
| Standings?1 Meyer 97? ?2 Colapinto 90? ?3 Al Habsi 85? ?4 van Berlo 59? ?5 Giorgio Carrara 55 | ||
| Japan | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (11 laps) | Race 2 (11 laps) | |
| 1?Kakunoshin Ohta 23m46.320s 2 Ren Sato +1.870s 3?Atsushi Miyake +2.511s 4 Togo Suganami +4.309s 5 Hibiki Taira +4.741s |
1 Ohta 28m48.197s 2 Sato +0.177s 3 Miyake +1.195s 4 Suganami +3.031s 5 Taira +4.000s |
|
| Standings?1 Sato 111? ?2 Ohta 78? ?3 Suganami 69? ?4 Miyake 56? ?5 Nonaka 55 | ||
| Finland | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (14 laps) | Race 2 (16 laps) | |
| 1 Markus Laitala 25m54.949s 2 Elias Seppanen +0.376s 3 Nikita Alexandrov +0.787s 4 Max Salo +24.996s 5 Nestori Virtala +1 lap |
1 Laitala 25m32.126s 2 Alexandrov +4.947s 3 Seppanen +10.505s 4 Juha Fred +10.952s 5 Salo +38.398s |
|
| Standings?1 Laitala 50? ?2 Alexandrov 33? ?3 Seppanen 33? ?4 Salo 24? ?5 Virtala 20 | ||