
Photo: F4 UAE
Kean Nakamura Berta claimed his first car racing win in the opening race of the 2024 Formula 4 United Arab Emirates season on Yas Marina Circuit’s Corkscrew layout.
Yas Heat driver Keanu Al Azhari lined up on pole but made a slow start and was swamped by Mumbai Falcons trio Nakamura, Freddie Slater and Alex Powell. Al Azhari recovered to second on the opening lap behind Nakamura, who held a 1.5-second lead.
From there Nakamura continued to edge clear, with the Alpine Academy driver – with just six previous car races in F4 South East Asia under his belt – eventually taking victory by 5.608 seconds in the 30-minute contest which ran under green flags throughout.
Al Azhari pulled two seconds clear of the squabbling Slater and Powell to take runner-up spot. Slater made a late mistake while under pressure from Powell, but edged his team-mate to the final podium spot.
Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri battled Hitech GP’s Deagen Fairclough for most of the race, making it past in the closing stages to finish fifth. Fairclough then slipped to seventh behind Mumbai Falcons’ Dion Gowda.
Al Dhaheri’s team-mate Doriane Pin snatched eighth late on from Hitech’s Gabriel Stilp, who held off PHM’s Nikita Bedrin to take the chequered flag in ninth, but was carrying a 10s penalty for jumping the start.
Race result
Pos | Driver | Team | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Kean Nakamura Berta | Mumbai Falcons | 17 laps |
2 | Keanu Al Azhari | Yas Heat | +5.608s |
3 | Freddie Slater | Mumbai Falcons | +7.619s |
4 | Alex Powell | Mumbai Falcons | +8.126s |
5 | Rashid Al Dhaheri | Prema | +12.653s |
6 | Dion Gowda | Mumbai Falcons | +15.701s |
7 | Deagen Fairclough | Hitech GP | +18.152s |
8 | Doriane Pin | Prema | +18.995s |
9 | Gabriel Stilp | Hitech GP | +22.430s |
10 | Nikita Bedrin | PHM Racing | +23.365s |
11 | Alvise Rodella | Xcel Motorsport | +25.053s |
12 | Matteo Quintarelli | Sainteloc Racing | +25.779s |
13 | Jack Beeton | AGI Sport | +28.937s |
14 | Zack Scoular | Yas Heat | +29.778s |
15 | Yevan David | Sainteloc Racing | +30.440s |
16 | Enzo Yeh | R-ace GP | +31.647s |
17 | Jules Caranta | R-ace GP | +32.229s |
18 | Raphael Narac | R-ace GP | +36.050s |
19 | Seb Murray | Hitech GP | +36.347s |
20 | Tiago Rodrigues | Xcel Motorsport | +40.507s |
21 | Luka Sammalisto | R-ace GP | +40.808s |
22 | Kai Daryanani | Pinnacle Motorsport | +42.415s |
23 | Reza Seewooruthun | Hitech GP | +42.922s |
24 | Maxi Restrepo | Sainteloc Racing | +43.592s |
25 | Peter Bouzinelos | AGI Sport | +44.964s |
26 | Maximilian Popov | PHM Racing | +50.716s |
27 | Kamal Mrad | PHM Racing | +51.984s |
28 | Carrie Schreiner | AGI Sport | +55.472s |
29 | Kaishun Liu | Xcel Motorsport | +56.026s |
30 | Nicolas Stati | AGI Sport | +56.431s |
31 | Everett Stack | PHM Racing | +57.670s |
32 | Aurelia Nobels | Sainteloc Racing | +59.409s |
33 | Yuhao Fu | Pinnacle Motorsport | +1m07.890s |