Lammers holds off Strauven for another Spanish F4 win

Photo: Spanish F4

MP Motorsport’s Rene Lammers held off Campos Racing’s Thomas Strauven to win the third Spanish Formula 4 race at Motorland Aragon.

Strauven started on pole, and there was drama behind him immediately as Drivex School’s Edu Robinson stalled and waas collected by Monlau Motorsport’s Lorenzo Campos. His team-mate Francisco Monarca struck trouble too and began going slowly, but made it to lap two, while Tecnicar Motorsport’s Sacha Van’t Pad Bosch and TC Racing’s Santiago Baztarrica were also lap one retirements.

The safety car was summoned, and the field had to go through the pits as the crashed cars were cleared up on the pit straight. When racing resumed on lap five, Strauven had fourth placed starter Lammers on his tail, then Niklas Schaufler (MP), Jan Przyrowski (Campos), Noah Monteiro (Campos) and Ean Eyckmans (MP).

Lammers applied pressure into the final chicane on the restart lap but rather than make a move there he instead lined himself up for the inside line at the final corner and it meant he began lap six 0.077s ahead. Further back, Tecnicar Motorsport’s Andrej Petrovic passed Eyckmans.

Strauven did not want to stay behind and made two mid-lap attempts to reclaim the lead before drawing alongside down the back straight. Lammers decided to use as much room as he could on the left, and Strauven drove alongside him off the track. It led to him almost losing second to Przyrowski, who had passed Schaufler.

Lammers weaved down the back straight on lap seven and Strauven made a dive on him but it failed, and from then on he was stuck behind the leader and ahead of Przyrowski. He set the fastest lap on lap 12, and Lammers had to weave again to break the tow next time by, then on the 14th and final lap Strauven lunged at the chicane but came short of victory by 0.238 seconds. It also meant Lammers left the opening round of the season with an extended points lead.

Seven seconds back was a four-car fight for fourth, and in a photo finish Schaufler held off Petrovic, Monteiro and Drivex’s Christopher Feghali. He had come under pressure late on due to an off on lap 12.

MP’s Juan Cota shook off Campos’s Miguel Costa for eighth aftere some battling, and Eyckmans completed the top 10.

Denied a change to get strong results were MP’s Hudson Schwartz and Campos’s Vivek Kanthan. Shwartz pitted at the end of lap six and finished 27th, while Kanthan slowed to a stop on track four laps from the end.

Race results (14 laps)