Photo: Roger Gascoigne
Reigning karting world champion Kirill Kutskov took a win and a second in Formula 4 Central European Zone’s Sunday races at Autodrom Most to reduce Oscar Wurz’s points lead.
Kutskov’s victory came in the wet-dry opening race of the day, taking the lead from Wurz on the 10th lap as the track dried.
Though the rain had abated before the race, the decision was made to start behind the safety car on the wet track. Starting from pole, courtesy of his victory in race one on Saturday, JMT Racing’s Miroslav Mikes held off Jenzer’s Max Karhan once racing commenced at the end of the first tour, with Wurz making slight contact with Karhan as they jostled for second.
The Jenzer pair had a pace advantage on the damp surface, with both Karhan and Wurz demoting Mikes into the last corner, before the two team-mates made further contact as Wurz pushed for the lead, running off track in the process and dropping back to sixth.
With Michelle Jandova’s car stranded, the safety car was deployed, and once racing resumed three laps later the racing line was noticeably drier. Karhan was defending from Kutskov and Mikes, the Russian pushing for a way through all around the track.
As Kutskov challenged Karhan, the recovering Wurz had caught back up to the leading group and disposed of first Kutskov and then Karhan within two corners to take the lead.
Kutskov, who had set his car up with lower tyre pressures for the drier conditions, finally managed to get to the front, as Wurz lost out to Mikes. The two continued to fight for postion, and Wurz rammed into the rear of Mikes’s car under braking for the penultimate corner, ending his race in the gravel, although he was still classified as a finisher having completed 75% of the race distance.
Philippe Armand Karras finished third on-the-road after a strong performance in his debut weekend, but a five-second penalty for overtaking under yellow flags dropped him to fourth in the final classification, promoting Karhan to the final podium spot.
Jenzer’s mechanics had to work flatout to ready a new monocoque for Wurz following his heavy crash to get him onto the grid for race three, albeit in Jenzer’s traditional blue-and-black livery rather than his usual colour scheme.
Karras started on pole for race three with Kutskov alongside on the front row, as the top five from race one lined up in reverse order. However, it was Kutskov who immediately took the lead with both Wurz and Karhan following him through in turn one.
A mistake from Karhan let Karras briefly regain third, but the Czech driver quickly retook the place and set off after the leaders as Kutskov’s pace allowed a five-car train to build at the front.
Karhan was on a charge, passing Wurz on lap 13 and disposing of Kutskov next time around. After that he pulled away to win by almost five seconds.
Mikes managed to outbrake Karras for fourth but a mistake exiting the last corner allowed the Frenchman back past before they reached the chequered flag.
Results round-up
Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Kirill Kutskov Maffi Racing 25m05.766s
2 Miroslav Mikes JMT Racing +5.500s
3 Max Karhan Jenzer Motorsport +10.332s
4 Philippe Armand Karras Gender Racing Team +14.250s
5 Marek Micik F4 CEZ Academy +21.111ss
6 Jean-Pierre Karras Gender Racing Team +28.376s
7 Kornelia Olkucka Maffi Racing +56.033s
8 Oscar Wurz Jenzer Motorsport +1 lap
Ret Michalina Sabaj AS Motorsport
Ret Michelle Jandova F4 CEZ Academy
Fastest lap: Kutskov, 1m43.437s
Race 3 (13 laps)
1 Karhan 25m30.417s
2 Kutskov +4.976s
3 Wurz +5.196s
4 PA Karras +5.445s
5 Mikes +5.861s
6 Sabaj+21.976s
7 Micik +31.168s
8 Jandova +1m05.604s
9 Olkucka +1m41.948s
DNS J-P Karras
FL: Karhan, 1m34.221s
Championship standings
1 Wurz 204 2 Kutskov 158 3 Karhan 132 4 Mikes 121 5 Jonathan Correrella 66 6 Davide Larini 51 7 Maximilian Popov 46 8 Kamal Mrad 46 9 Andrej Petrovic 43 10 Sabaj 42