Photo: F4 CEZ/Petr Fryba
With two wins on the Central European Formula 4 championship’s annual visit to Brno, Elia Weiss extended his championship lead ahead of the final round in Hungary.
The Jenzer Motorsport driver thus claimed his seventh and eighth wins of the season, double the tally of his nearest rival, from 15 race starts.
However, the German driver did not have things all his own way in the Czech Republic, as team-mate Georgiy Zasov kept him at bay to claim his maiden F4 victory in the third heat.
Teo Borenstein completed a clean sweep for the Swiss team with victory over another Jenzer pilot, Max Karhan, in heat two.
Zasov topped Friday’s wet qualifying session to take pole position for heats one and three, with the tricky conditions catching out some competitors. Cram Motorsport’s Simon Rechenmacher was left in 20th with McLaren junior Ella Hakkinen back in 26th.
Weiss took the lead on the opening lap as both Zasov and Borenstein both ran wide into Turn 3. Karhan leapt up to second followed by Mathilde Paatz. Zasov fell to fourth after contact with Borenstein, with the Czech driver dropping back to 18th.
Rechenmacher was making rapid progress from his lowly grid spot, passing Zasov and then nabbing the final podium position from Paatz two laps from home.
Borenstein held off Karhan to win race two, with Weiss absent, as Rechenmacher produced another charge through the field, this time up to fifth at the flag.
Zasov made better use of his pole position in the third heat, retaining the lead into Turn 1 from Weiss. The German was glued to the tail of his Swiss team-mate throughout but try as he might was unable to find a way through, crossing the line 0.310s in arrears.
There was drama before the lights even went out for the start of the final as the four Maffi Racing cars pulled into the pits at the end of the formation lap.
When the race got underway, polesitter Weiss held off Karhan into Turn 1 as Zasov fell back to eighth. Borenstein slipped past Karhan for second but was unable to challenge Weiss out front.
The race was neutralized after a huge crash involving Mio Olert and Piotr Orcholski, with racing resuming with 10 minutes remaining. Weiss made no mistakes at the restart and the leaders held positions until a late rain shower prompted the clerk of the course to deploy the safety car once more, with the race finishing under yellows.
Championship standings
1 Weiss 299 2 Borenstein 257 3 Karhan 240 4 David Walther 237 5 Markas Silkunas 156 6 Rechenmacher 155 7 Aleksandar Bogunovic 132 8 Zasov 132 9 Francesco Pio Coppola 90 10 Paatz 89