Freddie Slater crowned F4 UAE champion as Al Dhaheri wins finale

Photo: F4 UAE

Rashid Al Dhaheri won the Formula 4 United Arab Emirates season finale at Dubai Autodrome, while Freddie Slater took the title.

There was drama from the off, with Mumbai Falcons’ Alex Powell jumping the start by a big margin but then stopping and not going again. Everyone went past the third-placed starter without contact.

Kean Nakamura Berta and Al Dhaheri shared the front row, with the latter making use of the inside line to pass the poleman before turn one. Deagen Fairclough dropped down the order with an off then got involved in a second incident later in the lap, while points leader Keanu Al Azhari tried passing Luka Sammalisto for eighth but ended up dropping out of the top 10.

He overtook Jules Caranta for 10th on lap two just before the safety car was summoned due to Prema’s Tomass Stolcermanis and Sainteloc Racing’s Raphael Narac having a big crash. The race was red flagged a lap later as their cars were recovered.

The restart took place with two laps behind the safety car before green flag action returned on lap five. Al Azhari repeated his earlier error of trying to pass Sammalisto for ninth and instead fell behind Caranta and out of the points positions.

Caranta and Al Azhari then both got by Sammalisto on lap six, and Al Azhari was even able to pass Caranta to get into ninth. Next on his radar was Jack Beeton, and he cleared him on lap eight. Beeton went off when Caranta tried to pass him too, and after rejoining the track he conceded the position.

Al Azhari needed to make up far more ground to keep his title ambitions alive though, since his closest rival Slater was in third and Nakamura was pressuring Al Dhaheri for the win.

Less than 0.4 separated the top two from lap eight to lap 11, and although Al Dhaheri initially grew his lead on the final lap there was a brief point where Nakamura got very close to him. They held position, and Prema’s Al Dhaheri took his second victory of 2024.

Mumbai Falcons duo Nakamura and Slater completed the podium, with Dion Gowda and Enzo Yeh following them home. Nakamura lost out on the title by four points, with Al Azhari a further four points behind after finishing eighth and a long way behind the battling Enzo Deligny and Matteo Quintarelli. Sammalisto ended the race in 15th place.

Race results (12 laps)