Photo: FRME
The final rounds of the Formula Regional and Formula 4 Middle East championships got underway at Losail on Wednesday.
There two test sessions, each lasting an hour, and a 30-minute practice session for both championships at the Qatari circuit, which is a new challenge for the majority of entrants.
On the FRME grid was a new name, as Yujia Gao joined Origine Motorsport. He came 31st in the standings last year, finishing no higher than 17th in any races, and had three points-free FRegional Europe outings.
Sainteloc Racing’s Nikita Bedrin set the pace in the first test session, a 1m51.557s putting him 0.416 and 0.44 seconds ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato and R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny.
Mumbai Falcons’ Freddie Slater, his title rival Evan Giltaire and R-ace’s Akshay Bohra were the only other drivers within a second of Bedrin’s pace and Gao was 22nd fastest out of 24 drivers.
Deligny dropped to 12th overall as he failed to improve in the second session. The pace was lowered to 1m50.473s by Bedrin, and he had a marginally larger gap over the rest of the field. This time PHM Racing’s Brando Badoer was closest, 0.43s slower than him, and ART GP’s points leader Giltaire was third. The disparity in pace was greater this time, as Pinnacle Motorsport’s Hiyu Yamakoshi was 1.16s off the top in fourth and Origine’s Zhongwei Wang in last trailed by 3.812s.
Laptimes were even faster in practice, although drivers did far fewer laps, and Giltaire laid down a marker with a 1m49.604s.
But Slater was only 0.093s slower than him, suggesting the pair could be fighting closely in races this weekend, while Badoer, R-ace’s Ugo Ugochukwu and Mumbai Falcons’ Jack Beeton all set 1m49.9s. A second covered the top 14.
Mumbai Falcons’ Kean Nakamura Berta was quickest in the first F4 Middle East test session, improving to 1m56.687s on his penultimate lap to lead Yas Heat Academy’s Adam Al Azhari by 0.226s. Akcel GP by PHM Racing’s Reno Francot was a further 0.193s behind, and Mumbai Falcons’ Tomass Stolcermanis was fourth.
Al Azhari improved to 1m56.268s in session two, going half a second faster than anyone else. R-ace’s Emanuele Olivieri was best of the rest, but third overall due to Nakamura’s session one benchmark, and next up was Yas Heat’s August Raber.
Alex Powell was also within a second of the pace, and the R-ace driver moved to the front in practice by a narrow margin. He pipped points leader Olivieri to top spot by 0.054s, Mumbai Falcons’ Salim Hanna Hernandez was a third of a second behind in third and Al Azhari was fourth.
Results round-up
FRegional
Pre-event testing
1 Nikita Bedrin Sainteloc Racing 1m50.473s
2 Brando Badoer PHM Racing +0.430s
3 Evan Giltaire ART Grand Prix +0.876s
4 Hiyu Yamakoshi Pinnacle Motorsport +1.160s
5 Matteo De Palo Evans GP +1.194s
6 Everett Stack PHM Racing +1.219s
7 Freddie Slater Mumbai Falcons +1.223s
8 Taito Kato ART Grand Prix +1.269s
9 Rashid Al Dhaheri Mumbai Falcons +1.392s
10 Kanato Le ART Grand Prix +1.489s
Free practice
1 Giltaire 1m49.604s
2 Slater +0.093s
3 Badoer +0.305s
4 Ugo Ugochukwu R-ace GP +0.352s
5 Jack Beeton Mumbai Falcons +0.366s
6 Al Dhaheri +0.401s
7 Le +0.402s
8 De Palo +0.434s
9 Enzo Deligny R-ace GP +0.458s
10 Kato +0.583s
F4
Pre-event testing
1 Adam Al Azhari Yas Heat Academy 1m56.268s
2 Kean Nakamura Berta Mumbai Falcons +0.419s
3 Emanuele Olivieri R-ace GP +0.524s
4 August Raber Yas Heat Academy +0.727s
5 Reno Francot Akcel GP +0.838s
6 Alex Powell R-ace GP +0.919s
7 Tomass Stolcermanis Mumbai Falcons +1.185s
8 Taha Hassiba QMMF +1.384s
9 Salim Hanna Hernandez Mumbai Falcons +1.448s
10 Newman Chi Prema +1.509s
Free practice
1 Powell 1m56.552s
2 Olivieri +0.054s
3 Hanna +0.328s
4 Al Azhari +0.599s
5 Francot +0.784s
6 Stolcermanis +0.795s
7 Raber +1.473s
8 Hassiba +1.673s
9 Cole Hewetson Xcel Motorsport +1.762s
10 Bader Al Sulaiti QMMF +1.929s