MP Motorsport’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli took the pole positions in qualifying at the Formula 4 United Arab Emirates season opener.
The pair were the pacesetters in the Friday morning warm-up session at Yas Marina Circuit, with Antonelli setting the pace by 0.265s ahead of Inthraphuvasak. Global Racing Service’s Vladislav Ryabov was over half a second back in third place.
Inthraphuvasak struck back by topping the first qualifying session, setting a 1m55.692s that put him almost a tenth of a second clear of Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema’s Aiden Neate and Antonelli. Neate’s team-mate James Wharton was fourth.
There were lots of deleted laptimes during the session for track limits violations, but the top five drivers all avoided offending with Sohil Shah qualifying fifth in the Xcel Motorsport-supported Mumbai Falcons car.
In Q2 a big improvement from Antonelli broke the 1m55s barrier and comfortably put him on pole. This time single-seater debutant and Ferrari Formula 1 junior Wharton was second fastest, 0.358s back, and Inthraphuvasak was third and well over half a second behind.
Inthraphuvasak briefly sat in first place midway through the session, before three successive improvements by Antonelli put him out of reach.
3Y Technology by R-ace GP’s Martinius Stenshorne was one of the top karting graduates, qualifying eighth for race one in what will be his first ever car racing action and the first ever championship race for the new Tatuus T-421 car.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid (top 10)
1 Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak MP Motorsport 1m55.692s
2 Aiden Neate Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema +0.099s
3 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Prema +0.144s
4 James Wharton Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema +0.189s
5 Sohil Shah Mumbai Falcons by Xcel +0.352s
6 Alex Dunne Hitech GP +0.367s
7 Charlie Wurz Prema +0.433s
8 Martinius Stenshorne 3Y by R-ace GP +0.469s
9 Rik Koen MP Motorsport +0.474s
10 Nikita Bedrin PHM Racing +0.579s
Race 3 grid
1 Antonelli 1m54.923s
2 Wharton +0.358s
3 Inthraphuvasak +0.591s
4 Dunne +0.629s
5 Neate +0.631s
6 Wurz +0.788s
7 Koen +0.860s
8 Vladislav Ryabov Global Racing Service +0.868s
9 Miron Pingasov MP Motorsport +1.026s
10 Bedrin +1.047s