Lucca Allen shares F4 SEA spoils with Shihab Al Habsi at Buriram

Photo: F4 South East Asia

Lucca Allen extended his Formula 4 South East Asia lead with a brace of wins at Buriram.

The Irish youngster would have made it three without a race one penalty but had to settle for sharing the spoils with Shihab Al Habsi.

Allen was struck by a 30-second penalty for exceeding track limits race one, demoting him to fifth. Al Habsi, who finished a second behind Allen on-track, inherited the win, ahead of Muizz Musyaffa and Malthe Jakobsen.

Josh Smith and Alister Yoong were also penalised for the same reason and finished in sixth and seventh. Smith was also quicker than Al Habsi before his punishment.

Allen fought back in the reversed-grid second race, charging through the field to reach second place after the first lap before reeling in Yoong for the lead. Allen won by a comfortable margin of four second from Smith, who kept within the lines this time.

The stewards were being extremely observant with track limits infringements; three of the four races included three drivers being sanctioned. Yoong was dropped from fourth to sixth by one such penalty, after being overhauled for second by Smith. Elias Seppanen had another clean race to finish third.

Al Habsi won the second reverse-grid race, taking advantage of his third-place start due to an indifferent race two. Seppanen was the fastest of the ten drivers but could not match the consistency of Al Habsi. Allen continued to amass points in third place.

Smith had another nightmare, picking up another penalty for gaining an unfair advantage and ending the race in sixth, behind Muizz Musyaffa and Yoong.

Allen was the victor in the final race, almost half a second in front of a hard-charging Seppanen, who almost matched him on laptimes throughout. Al Habsi was third, seven seconds further back, having passed Smith.

The biggest battle of the race was between Jakobsen and Yoong for sixth. Yoong defended just a little too robustly, causing damage to Jakobsen’s rear wheel and precipitating his retirement. Yoong was also fighting against a damaged front wing, incurred in an equally physical tussle with Al Habsi’s car. The former was penalised 90s for causing a collision, exceeding track limits and driving standards, dropping him to ninth place.