Photo: F4 UAE
Mumbai Falcons’ Kean Nakamura Berta was fastest in both of the qualifying sessions for the Formula 4 United Arab Emirates season finale at Dubai Autodrome.
Hitech GP’s Gabriel Stilp was first to the top in Q1, with Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri in second and Hitech team-mate Deagen Fairclough in third.
Once the second flying laps came in the pace was lowered to 2m01.514s by Fairclough, with Stilp improving to 2m01.871s in second and PHM Racing’s Maximilian Popov jumping up to third with a 2m02.119s.
Other drivers left it later for their second lap, and after seven minutes Yas Heat Academy’s Keanu Al Azhari usurped Fairclough with a 2m01.325s and Xcel Motorsport’s Alvise Rodella climbed up to fourth place by setting a 2m01.871s.
Al Dhaheri was next to cross the line and he took provisional pole with a 2m01.281s, while Prema’s Tomass Stolcermanis got between the Hitech drivers into fourth place.
Most of the Mumbai Falcons and Prema drivers only had one laptime to their name halfway through Q1, but after that they showed their true pace. A 2m00.939s lap from Nakamura put him on top, with team-mate Alex Powell 0.256 seconds slower but climbing to second place. Dion Gowda went sixth fastest, behind AGI Sport’s Jack Beeton, and Freddie Slater rose to ninth.
The last to leave their mark on the timesheet were R-ace GP’s drivers, and with six-and-a-half minutes to go Jules Caranta get a 2m01.324s to move into fourth, team-mate Enzo Yeh went seventh fastest and Enzo Deligny was 0.664s off the pace in 11th.
Very few drivers were able to improve on the following laps, meaning the order was pretty much set and Nakamura was on pole. Al Dhaheri improved to 1m01.100s on his third lap to make it onto the front row of the grid, Yeh got faster but stayed in seventh and his team-mate Luka Sammalisto made it into 10th. Fairclough was shuffled all the way down to ninth, with Slater down in 13th and Stilp in 16th but within a second of pole.
Fairclough and Stilp were again the fastest drivers at the beginning of Q2, and it took longer to knock them off the top. But they very rapidly then dropped to 14th and 15th, as Nakamura lowere the pace to 1m59.798s with his second lap.
That put him a huge 0.665s ahead of Al Dhaheri in second place, with Powell 0.847s behind in third, Slater 0.925s off the pace in fourth and then Gowda, Sammalisto and Yeh covered by 0.024s just behind as the only other drivers within a secon of Nakamura.
Once again improvements were rare following that, with Yeh going fifth fastest with just over a minute to go. Al Azhari set five laps but floundered in 10th place.
Qualifying round-up
Q1 results
1 Kean Nakamura Berta Mumbai Falcons 2m00.939s
2 Rashid Al Dhaheri Prema +0.161s
3 Alex Powell Mumbai Falcons +0.256s
4 Jules Caranta R-ace GP +0.385s
5 Keanu Al Azhari Yas Heat +0.386s
6 Jack Beeton AGI Sport +0.426s
7 Enzo Yeh R-ace GP +0.462s
8 Dion Gowda Mumbai Falcons +0.549s
9 Deagen Fairclough Hitech GP +0.575s
10 Luka Sammalisto R-ace GP +0.577s
Q2 results
1 Nakamura 1m59.798s
2 Al Dhaheri +0.665s
3 Powell +0.847s
4 Freddie Slater Mumbai Falcons +0.925s
5 Yeh +0.940s
6 Gowda +0.942s
7 Sammalisto +0.955s
8 Caranta +1.008s
9 Beeton +1.066s
10 Al Azhari +1.071s