Photo: F4 UAE
Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak pipped Nikola Tsolov by just 0.019 seconds to take pole for race three of the opening round of the Spanish Formula 4 championship at Algarve.
The MP Motorsport driver moved to the top of the times in the final minutes of qualifying on Sunday morning with a 1m45.423s lap, and slow third sector splits for the frontrunners on the final flying lap of the session prevented any last-minute improvements and secured Inthraphuvasak pole.
Campos Racing’s Tsolov was unable to complete a hat-trick of pole positions after dominating Q1 on Saturday.
Tymoteusz Kucharczyk took third for MP, ahead of Campos duo Georg Kelstrup and Filip Jenic, and the quintet were seperated by just 0.089s.
MP’s Valerio Rinicella will start sixth in race three, ahead of race one winner, Hugh Barter, and is still suffering from a hand injury incurred on Saturday.
Early pacesetter Christian Ho was unable to match others’ improvements late in Q2 and had dropped to ninth by the chequered flag, just behind fellow MP driver Suleiman Zanfari, with Jesse Carrasquedo Jr rounding out the top 10 for Campos.
Kirill Smal appeared to have made progress after his last-minute signature for MP, although also fell back at the end having been second fastest earlier in the session.
In order to comply with Spanish F4’s new rule limiting each team to a maximum of four entries, both MP and Campos have split their driving line-ups between two similarly-named teams.
Track limits again caused problems for a number of drivers, with Jorge Campos and Ricardo Gracia receiving reprimands from the stewards for repeated infractions.
‘MP Motorsports’ will run Miron Pingasov and Zanfari, while Inthraphuvasak and Kucharczyk are listed in the official standings as entries for ‘MP Motorsport’. It appears that all of Campos’s drivers are with ‘Campos Racing’ except for Carrasquedo.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | MP Motorsport | 1m45.423s | 9 | |
| 2 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos Racing | 1m45.442s | +0.019s | 9 |
| 3 | Tymoteusz Kucharczyk | MP Motorsport | 1m45.463s | +0.040s | 9 |
| 4 | Georg Kelstrup | Campos Racing | 1m45.494s | +0.071s | 9 |
| 5 | Filip Jenic | Campos Racing | 1m45.512s | +0.089s | 9 |
| 6 | Valerio Rinicella | MP Motorsport | 1m45.554s | +0.131s | 9 |
| 7 | Hugh Barter | Campos Racing | 1m45.602s | +0.179s | 9 |
| 8 | Suleiman Zanfari | MP Motorsport | 1m45.660s | +0.237s | 9 |
| 9 | Christian Ho | MP Motorsport | 1m45.694s | +0.271s | 9 |
| 10 | Jesse Carrasquedo Jr | Campos Racing | 1m45.770s | +0.347s | 9 |
| 11 | Bruno del Pino | Drivex School | 1m45.808s | +0.385s | 8 |
| 12 | Kirill Smal | MP Motorsport | 1m45.837s | +0.414s | 9 |
| 13 | Robert De Haan | VAR/Monlau Motorsport | 1m45.922s | +0.499s | 8 |
| 14 | Alvaro Garcia | Formula de Campeones | 1m45.970s | +0.547s | 9 |
| 15 | Ricardo Escotto | Cram Motorsport | 1m45.971s | +0.548s | 8 |
| 16 | Daniel Nogales | Teo Martin Motorsport | 1m45.993s | +0.570s | 8 |
| 17 | Sebastian Gravlund | MP Motorsport | 1m46.015s | +0.592s | 8 |
| 18 | Gael Julien | Drivex School | 1m46.027s | +0.604s | 8 |
| 19 | Max Arkhangselskiy | Drivex School | 1m46.037s | +0.614s | 8 |
| 20 | Noah Lisle | Drivex School | 1m46.049s | +0.626s | 8 |
| 21 | Max Mayer | Formula de Campeones | 1m46.119s | +0.696s | 8 |
| 22 | Miron Pingasov | MP Motorsport | 1m46.264s | +0.841s | 9 |
| 23 | Ricardo Gracia | GRS | 1m46.272s | +0.849s | 8 |
| 24 | Manuel Espirito Santo | Teo Martin Motorsport | 1m46.307s | +0.884s | 8 |
| 25 | Vladislav Ryabov | GRS | 1m46.328s | +0.905s | 8 |
| 26 | Anshul Gandhi | Cram Motorsport | 1m46.340s | +0.917s | 8 |
| 27 | Lola Lovinfosse | Teo Martin Motorsport | 1m46.408s | +0.985s | 8 |
| 28 | Lucas Malek | Teo Martin Motorsport | 1m46.493s | +1.070s | 8 |
| 29 | Jef Machiels | VAR/Monlau Motorsport | 1m46.877s | +1.454s | 8 |
| 30 | Jorge Campos | Formula de Campeones | 1m46.895s | +1.472s | 8 |