Gabriel Gomez starts FWinter Series with double pole and win at Algarve

Photo: Alpha Live

US Racing’s Gabriel Gomez won race one of the Formula Winter Series at Algarve on Saturday.

The day’s action began with qualifying, and US’s Gomez and Edu Robinson were the drivers to beat. In Q1, Gomez set a 1m45.533s to take race one pole by 0.296 seconds over Robinson, with Hitech GP’s Leo Robinson a further 0.005s behind.

Hitech’s Thomas Bearman and Fionn McLaughlin were both within 0.045s of the front row, US’s Luka Sammalisto was sixth, and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Maximilian Popov was seventh.

Drivers’ second-best laptimes set race two’s grid, and it was an identical top six. A 1m45.792s from Gomez put him on pole by 0.071s over Edu Robinson, Leo Robinson was 0.137s behind in third and Bearman was another 0.1s back.

There was plenty of drama when race one began, and although the top three immediately broke away there was a mistake by Gomez under braking into turn one and several drivers behind went off there and at turn three.

Leo Robinson led into the turn five hairpin, and Gomez tried reclaiming first place going up the hill after but was unable to and then almost crashed into Robinson at the penultimate corner. They began lap two split by 0.1s, and chasing them were Edu Robinson, McLaughlin, Sammalisto and US’s Andrija Kostic.

Bearman dropped to 14th, and Georgi Zhuravskiy did not make the grid as ASK Motorsport worked on his engine in the pits.

Robinson swerved slightly to hold off Gomez down the pit straight, but could not shake him and on lap three he tried to pass around the outside at turn one but went off. Gomez made another attempt at turn three, then on lap four Robinson set the fastest lap.

Gomez responded immediately by taking the fastest lap from him, but could not get any closer than 0.7s until lap nine. The leader ensured there would be no pressure by growing his lead to a second on lap 10, and Gomez brought it back down to 0.874s on the next lap before the safety car appeared as Jenzer Motorsport’s Enea Frey retired.

Frey had attacked US’s Maxim Rehm for seventh at turn one on lap five but had gone off and dropped behind Hitech’s Nina Gademan, and a train then formed behind Rehm. AS Motorsport’s Sebastian Bach and Frey ran out of room fighting each other and it put Frey out, and the safety car period ended with one lap remaining.

Robinson left it as late as possible to return to racing speeds, and Gomez stuck to his rear and sides for corner after corner before diving past at turn 10 to snatch victory.

Sammalisto had got into third earlier on but track limits penalties demoted him to 13th, so Edu Robinson completed the podium. Kostic passed McLaughlin on the final lap for what became fourth, and Rehm held on to sixth.

Bach, under investigation, was seventh ahead of Gademan, Jenzer’s Bart Harrison and Maffi Racing’s Kirill Kutskov. Bearman exited points contention after pitting and being penalised.

Race results (16 laps)