Photo: F4 CEZ
Formula 4 Central European Zone’s 2024 runner-up Kirill Kutskov returned to the grid last week at Slovakia Ring, and won twice.
There was one practice session on Friday afternoon, and Benett Gaspar set a 2m04.815s to lead Mathilda Paatz by 0.075 seconds. Nicolas Cortes was 0.127s behind in third, and a second covered the top nine.
Qualifying took place a few hours later, and Cortes narrowly claimed pole. He set a 2m04.978s to edge Gino Trappa by 0.093s and Javier Herrera by 0.198s. Kutskov, Gaspar, Hady Mimassi and Paatz were all within 0.3s of top spot, and championship frontrunner Max Karhan was 0.5s slower than Cortes in eighth.
There was one race on Saturday, and Cortes immediately blew his pole advantage. Trappa led Herrera through lap one, and an attacking Kutskov got into third. Cortes demoted him back to fourth on lap two, and Karhan began his fightback on lap three by passing David Gorcica.
Simon Schranz was cleared next on lap five into turn one, with Paatz following him through and F1 Academy racer Nicole Havrda soon getting ahead of him too, while Gorcica picked up severe front wing damage that sent him down the order.
Karhan was able to overtake Gaspar and Mimassi in the race’s first half too, and gained another spot on the penultimate lap as Cortes spun out. He had dived down Herrera’s inside at a hairpin and pulled off a pass, but as he drifted back to the racing line there was rear to front contact and he went off.
The safety car was summoned, and fourth became second for Karhan. Trappa, who had managed the race up front, was penalised five seconds for braking too sharply to come down to safety car speed and was classified 12th while Herrera was penalised two seconds for track limits abuse and fell to fourth. The chief beneficiary of Trappa’s penalty was Kutskov, who inherited victory.
The results set race two’s grid, so Kutskov lined up on pole on Sunday morning.
He swept to the inside off the line but Mimassi squeezed past into the lead, as Paatz leapt up to fourth.
Mimassi maintained a gap of around 0.6s until Kutskov got back past with three laps to go, and Karhan entered the final lap on their tail. He was alongside Mimassi through turns two and three but the latter held on to second despite a lock-up.
Trappa had a great lap one, climbing five spots, and gained another two spots on lap two as Paatz fell to seventh.
He was overtaken by Gaspar at turn one on lap six before doing the switchback to get back ahead, while Cortes recovered to ninth before an incident dropped him to 18th. Schranz conceded fourth on lap 10 with an off, then Gaspar took the position from Trappa in a photo finish by 0.067s. Andreas Lo Bue beat Teodor Borenstein by 0.061s just behind, then they each gained a spot as Trappa was penalised five seconds post-race.
Lo Bue started on reversed-grid pole for race three, with Trappa lining up 12th again. Herrera led into turn one, with Mimassi and Paatz also passing Lo Bue.
Trappa scithed through to sixth, and Gaspar was eighth despite losing most of his rear wing. Paatz overtook Mimassi ending lap two, but contact meant Paatz got a rear-right puncture and Mimassi broke his front wing.
The safety car was summoned after Paatz stopped on track, and Trappa was in second. Racing resumed on lap five, and at turn three Lo Bue went off and Cortes spun.
Trappa pressured Herrera until passing him on lap seven, and immediately pulled away to take a points lead-extending win.
Karhan got up to fourth by lap six then attacked Kutskov on lap 10. He went down his inside at turn three, but Kutskov got back past in the final sector.
On lap 11 he tried the outside of turn one but was sent wide, then they ran side-by-side twice but Kutskov held on. Karhan repeated his turn one attempt on the final lap and pulled it off to make the podium.
Results round-up
Race 1 (12 laps)
1 Kirill Kutskov Maffi Racing 26m49.748s
2 Max Karhan Jenzer Motorsport +0.639s
3 Hady Mimassi Renauer Motorsport +1.025s
4 Benett Gaspar Zengo Motorsport +1.159s
5 Mathilda Paatz Mathilda Racing +2.059s
6 Teodor Borenstein Maffi Racing +2.278s
7 Javier Herrera Jenzer Motorsport +2.278s
8 Andreas Lo Bue Maffi Racing +2.538s
9 Simon Schranz Renauer Motorsport +2.855s
10 Nicole Havrda JMT Racing +3.557s
Pole: Nicolas Cortes, 2m04.978s
Fastest lap: Trappa, 2m04.653s
Race 2 (12 laps)
1 Kutskov 25m10.833s
2 Mimassi +1.026s
3 Karhan +1.382s
4 Gaspar +12.894s
5 Herrera +13.157s
6 Lo Bue +15.445s
7 Borenstein +15.506s
8 Gino Trappa Jenzer Motorsport +17.961s
9 Frantisek Nemec F4 CEZ Academy +27.450s
10 David Gorcica Janik Motorsport +28.676s
FL: Kutskov, 2m04.965s
Race 3 (12 laps)
1 Trappa 26m34.171s
2 Herrera +3.184s
3 Karhan +8.636s
4 Kutskov +9.357s
5 Borenstein +9.862s
6 Mimassi +12.029s
7 Gorcica +12.207s
8 Nemec +18.576s
9 Havrda +19.048s
10 Nikolaj Dyrved Maffi Racing +25.493s
FL: Trappa, 2m05.354s
Championship standings
1 Trappa 266 2 Karhan 231 3 Herrera 127 4 Mimassi 114 5 David Walther 113 6 Nicolas Cortes 99 7 Paatz 70 8 Schranz 66 9 Bart Harrison 65 10 Kutskov 62