Home Formula 4F4 Middle East Francesco Pizzi leads the way in penultimate F4 UAE round

Francesco Pizzi leads the way in penultimate F4 UAE round

by Ida Wood

Francesco Pizzi added another two wins to his season tally in Formula 4 United Arab Emirates at Dubai Autodrome.

While he started the weekend with pole position, it was Xcel Motorsport team-mate Lorenzo Fluxa who took a first win in race one as Pizzi was classified in fourth place over 25 seconds back. Nico Gohler and Hamda Al Qubaisi completed the podium.

Pizzi’s disappointing result put him higher up the order for the reversed grid second race, and he unsurprisingly took victory over team-mate Nicola Marinangeli and Al Qubaisi. Gohler’s race ended at the start when he crashed into the stalled Josef Knopp.

For race three, Pizzi was on pole again and he just pipped Fluxa to win by 0.705s, with Al Qubaisi finishing third again.

After finishing fourth in race three, Gohler struck back with victory in the final race of the weekend, while Al Qubaisi took her ninth podium in the last 10 races by finishing second. Pizzi was a distant sixth, finishing behind Marinangeli, Erick Zuniga and Fluxa.

Five drivers go into next month’s season finale in title contention.

Results round-up
Race 1 (18 laps)
1 Lorenzo Fluxa Xcel Motorsport 30m09.156s
2 Nico Gohler Mucke Motorsport +4.596s
3 Hamda Al Qubaisi Abu Dhabi Racing +14.888s
4 Francesco Pizzi Xcel Motorsport +25.428s
5 Nicola Marinangeli Xcel Motorsport +27.065s
6 Josef Knopp Xcel Motorsport +28.107s
7 Mehrbod Shameli Xcel Motorsport +29.038s
8 Reema Juffali Dragon Racing +29.538s
9 Erick Zuniga Mucke Motorsport +32.623s
10 Zdenek Chovanec Xcel Motorsport +40.912s
Pole: Pizzi, 1m38.404s
Fastest lap: Fluxa, 1m39.581s

Race 2 (17 laps)
1 Pizzi 31m24.287s
2 Marinangeli +2.337s
3 Al Qubaisi +8.841s
4 Fluxa +10.931s
5 Juffali +11.137s
6 Zuniga +12.907s
7 Shameli +18.679s
8 Chovanec +30.247s
9 Constantin Reisch 3Y Technology +31.733s
10 Abdulraham Al Bloushi Dream Racing +1m22.429s
FL: Pizzi, 1m40.144s

Race 3 (18 laps)
1 Pizzi 30m11.364s
2 Fluxa +0.705s
3 Al Qubaisi +1.802s
4 Gohler +2.222s
5 Knopp +11.663s
6 Chovanec +16.427s
7 Juffali +16.851s
8 Zuniga +21.975s
9 Marinangeli +26.641s
10 Shameli +27.545s
P: Pizzi, 1m38.404s
FL: Pizzi, 1m39.194s

Race 4 (17 laps)
1 Gohler 31m36.915s
2 Al Qubaisi +2.932s
3 Marinangeli +6.376s
4 Zuniga +18.902s
5 Fluxa +19.448s
6 Pizzi +25.800s
7 Shameli +32.700s
8 Knopp +41.890s
9 Al Bloushi +1m24.505s
10 Chovanec +4 laps
FL: Knopp, 1m39.811s

Championship standings
1 Pizzi 260? ?2 Gohler 211? ?3 Fluxa 195? ?4 Al Qubaisi 193? ?5 Marinangeli 191? ?6 Zuniga 115? ?7 Chovanec 97? ?8 Juffali 66? ?9 Shameli 56? ?10 Dexter Patterson 32