Freddie Slater fends off opposition for another hat-trick in Euro 4

Photo: ACI Sport

Freddie Slater got his elbows out once more to complete another hat-trick of wins in the Euro 4 round at the Red Bull Ring.

Starting from pole, Slater was challenged for the lead on the run to Turn 4 by Gustav Jonsson, who would end up being forced wide onto the gravel on the exit and plummeting down the order.

Contact behind resulted in both Jack Beeton and Gianmarco Pradel also finding the gravel, triggering a safety car, while Kean Nakamura-Berta would pit and ultimately join them in retirement.

At the restart, Slater had to defend for the first two laps from Prema team-mate Tomass Stolcermanis as their battle resumed from race two. Another safety car after Kai Daryanani stopped following contact only briefly paused the fight, with Slater once more going defensive into Turns 3 and 4 at the restart.

This time, Slater and Stolcermanis continued to race wheel-to-wheel until Stolcermanis got ahead on the exit of Turn 8. But he then went defensive into the last corner and ended up running well wide, allowing Slater to retake the lead with Hiyu Yamakoshi alongside and challenging him into Turn 3. With dirty tyres, Stolcermanis would be shuffled back to eighth over the course of the following lap.

Slater was unable to pull away from Van Amersfoort Racing’s Yamakoshi and had to take a defensive line one more time into Turn 3 but held on to clinch was is his fourth triple win of the year across Italian F4 and Euro 4.

Rashid Al Dhaheri completed the podium ahead of Akshay Bohra, who came from 11th on the grid to finish fourth and remains Slater’s nearest rival for the title, 26 points adrift and just two in front of Yamakoshi.

Alex Powell fended off Davide Larini for fifth, although the latter received a penalty for a starting infringement that put him to the bottom of the classification. Stolcermanis recovered to sixth in front of US Racing debutant Edu Robinson, while British F4 regular Reza Seewooruthun charged from 17th to finish eighth for Hitech GP, setting the fastest lap in the process.

Race result (19 laps)