Hamda Al Qubaisi took her first single-seater win in the third Formula 4 United Arab Emirates round of the season in Abu Dhabi.
The local racer, ran by Abu Dhabi Racing, was unstoppable in qualifying and was only denied converting that into a first win by 0.600 seconds in the first race of the weekend by Mucke Motorsport’s Nico Gohler.
Xcel Motorsport trio Lorenzo Fluxa, Nicola Marinangeli and Zdenek Chovanec finished in third, fourth and fifth, but their championship-leading team-mate Francesco Pizzi retired after his engine failed.
Al Qubaisi was beaten to victory again in race two, this time by first-time winner Marinangeli. Pizzi came from the back of the grid to finish fifth, only just being held back by team-mate Fluxa.
Mucke’s Erick Zuniga led much of the race, before being passed by Marinangeli and Al Qubaisi late on.
In race three Al Qubaisi finally managed to convert her first place starting spot into victory, and did so with a dominant 10s margin over Pizzi. The best on-track battle in the race was for third, with Fluxa just holding off Gohler.
The weekend ended with a red flag and safety car-interrupted race which Al Qubaisi failed to finish. The red flag was caused by Chovanec colliding with Reema Juffali and rolling the Saudi racer, while the later safety car came after a clash between Zuniga and Al Qubaisi.
Pizzi led home Marinangeli for his sixth win of the season, and extending his points lead to 34 over Gohler.
Results round-up
Race 1 (26 laps)
1 Nico Gohler Mucke Motorsport 30m42.025s
2 Hamda Al Qubaisi Abu Dhabi Racing +0.600s
3 Lorenzo Fluxa Xcel Motorsport +1.197s
4 Nicola Marinangeli Xcel Motorsport +11.981s
5 Zdenek Chovanec Xcel Motorsport +12.975s
6 Erick Zuniga Mucke Motorsport +22.176s
7 Isack Hadjar 3Y Technology +23.898s
8 Reema Juffali Dragon Racing +24.161s
9 Mehrbod Shameli Xcel Motorsport +28.125s
10 Josef Knopp Mucke Motorsport +29.056s
Pole: Al Qubaisi, 1m09.680s
Fastest lap: Al Qubaisi, 1m10.215s
Race 2 (26 laps)
1 Marinangeli 30m51.299s
2 Al Qubaisi +2.904s
3 Zuniga +5.253s
4 Fluxa +6.411s
5 Francesco Pizzi Xcel Motorsport +6.680s
6 Gohler +12.609s
7 Chovanec +15.932s
8 Juffali +21.465s
9 Shameli +41.466s
10 Abdulrahmen Al Bloushi Dream Racing +1 lap
FL: Marinangeli, 1m10.421s
Race 3 (26 laps)
1 Al Qubaisi 30m36.124s
2 Pizzi +10.502s
3 Fluxa +14.348s
4 Gohler +14.733s
5 Hadjar +18.302s
6 Zuniga +28.667s
7 Chovanec +32.676s
8 Juffali +32.943s
9 Knopp +33.490s
10 Shameli +35.066s
P: Al Qubaisi, 1m09.828s
FL: Al Qubaisi, 1m10.236s
Race 4 (21 laps)
1 Pizzi 55m45.171s
2 Marinangeli +0.182s
3 Gohler +0.482s
4 Fluxa +2.872s
5 Hadjar +3.874s
6 Knopp +10.698s
7 Shameli +11.521s
8 Al Bloushi +39.224s
Ret Zuniga
Ret Al Qubaisi
FL: Gohler, 1m10.467s
Championship standings
1 Pizzi 190? ?2 Gohler 156? ?3 Marinangeli 146? ?4 Al Qubaisi 130? ?5 Fluxa 130? ?6 Zuniga 89? ?7 Chovanec 83? ?8 Juffali 46? ?9 Shameli 37? ?10 Dexter Patterson 32