Photo: Fotocar13
Rene Lammers took two Spanish Formula 4 wins on the road on Sunday at Navarra after losing yet another victory to a post-race penalty.
Remarkably, after Saturday’s race one, victory was stripped from MP Motorsport’s Lammers and handed to Campos Racing driver Jan Przyrowski for the third race in a row.
This time Lammers was deemed to have gone off the track in his efforts to stay ahead of his rival and demoted by the stewards, although the amended results do remain provisional.
Keen to make amends, Lammers immediately got ahead of Przyrowski at the start of race two and then took the lead away from polesitter Thomas Strauven early in the second lap.
After a brief safety car period to retrieve the stranded car of Lorenzo Campos, the front three remained in close formation. That was until Strauven turned through turn two for the final time and the main plane of his rear wing suddenly flew away. Lammers escaped to win by 3.3 seconds, while a struggling Strauven managed to hold off team-mate Przyrowski by 0.075s.
“If they take this one away, I really don’t care. I’ve won every single race for the last few weeks,” a defiant Lammers said afterwards. “I don’t think there’s anything they can give me a penalty for now.”
Reno Francot finished a quiet fourth while Juan Cota remained at the head of an intense multi-car fight for fifth, in which Nathan Tye was turned around into a spin and Ean Eyckmans picked up rear wing damage, forcing him to pit.
The dominance of Lammers, Strauven and Przyrowski had been earlier been interrupted in Sunday morning’s second qualifying session. Cota claimed race three pole with a last lap of 1m46.072s, 0.098s ahead of Eyckmans with Lammers, Przyrowski and Strauven behind.
Eyckmans got a better start than Cota to take the lead, with team-mate Lammers following him through into second. Przyrowksi meanwhile lost a battle with Tecnicar’s Andrej Petrovic for fourth, while Strauven fell to seventh.
The Belgian did manage to stay clear of a fight for eighth that ended in carnage on lap two when Noah Monteiro and Tye collided and then became tangled together. They were somehow avoided by the rest of the pack, although Nacho Tunon did end up in the barriers before the safety car was deployed.
Eyckmans and Lammers quickly broke away at the restart and Lammers managed to take the lead within three laps.
Meanwhile, Petrovic had attacked Cota for third but couldn’t quite get the move complete, allowing a recovering Strauven to pass both.
Strauven would pass compatriot Eyckmans for second with four minutes left on the clock and still managed to catch Lammers before the end. He made a dive to the inside of Turn 3 on the last lap but had to settle for second, just 0.249s behind.
Results round-up
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Rene Lammers MP Motorsport 28m09.981s
2 Thomas Strauven Campos Racing +3.370s
3 Jan Przyrowski Campos Racing +3.445s
4 Reno Francot MP Motorsport +5.551s
5 Juan Cota MP Motorsport +7.149s
6 Noah Monteiro Campos Racing +7.624s
7 Vivek Kanthan Campos Racing +8.109s
8 Hudson Schwartz MP Motorsport +11.709s
9 Christopher Feghali Drivex +15.370s
10 Alfio Spino TC Racing +17.040s
Fastest lap: Lammers, 1m46.881s
Race 3
1 Lammers 31m53.495s
2 Strauven +0.249s
3 Ean Eyckmans MP Motorsport +3.075s
4 Andrej Petrovic Tecnicar +3.411s
5 Przyrowksi +5.130s
6 Francot +8.918s
7 Schwartz +10.387s
8 Cota +10.684s
9 Kanthan +17.670s
10 Niklas Schaufler MP Motorsport +18.203s
Pole: Cota, 1m46.072s
FL: Strauven 1m46.706s
Championship standings
1 Lammers 104 2 Strauven 94 3 Przyrowski 90 4 Schwartz 37 5 Cota 36 6 Francot 32 7 Eyckmans 30 8 Monteiro 30 9 Petrovic 26 10 Kanthan 24