Photo: Chinese F4
Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Yuanpu Cui cameoed in the Chinese Formula 4 championship last weekend, and his trip to Shanghai resulted in two wins.
Cui led the way in qualifying, and in Q1 set the pace by just 0.075 seconds over points leader Oscar Pedersen. Yuhao Fu was 0.847s off pole in third, and everyone else was more than a second off the pace.
He doubled up in Q2, and grew his advantage over Pedersen to 0.432s. It was close between third and fourth, with Kaishun Liu and Fu split by 0.006s but both 1.4s slower than Cui.
The poleman was unchallenged in race one, although Pedersen did get close at turn 12 on the first two laps. Liu passed Fu for third, then Fukang Jiang tried overtaking team-mate Liu at the hairpin but made contact.
On the next lap Liu ran deep there, going off and dropping to fifth as the top two sprinted away. He tried regaining a spot there on lap five but ran deep again, and on lap seven the safety car came out after Patrick Tsang flipped his car over Jacky Wong’s at the hairpin.
Racing resumed on lap 11, despite one driver crashing before the restart, and when green flags waved there was another incident which eliminated Peng Yang and meant the safety car returned and led the field to the chequered flag. Ciu won, and a five-second penalty demoted Liu from fourth to seventh.
Zhenyu Zhu started on reversed-grid pole for race two, and wheelspun away from the line. Zongyi Shang took the lead at turn one, with Liu passing Zhu a few corners later.
Liu made a diving move for the lead at turn six on lap two but ran deep and fell back behind Shang and Jiang. At turn 11, Jiang went around the outside of Shang to take first place, and on lap three Liu made a turn six move work to return to second. Fu crashed out at turn 11, and the safety car’s summoning paused the fights going on up front.
Pedersen and then Cui passed Liu on the lap seven restart, with Liu briefly getting back ahead as lap nine began.
Ciu attacked Pedersen at the final hairpin on three successive laps, with his third attempt enabling Liu to go past both. On lap 12, Ciu clipped Pedersen at turn six after braking late and the damage to his own car sent him into retirement.
Jiang escaped up front, and Liu held off Pedersen for second in the run to the finish.
Cui dominated race three, with Pedersen’s challenge ended on lap one by Liu driving into the back of him at the final hairpin. Pedersen continued in third place, but lost ground with each lap and finished 12s behind Cui. Outside of the points, there was a five-car race-long battle for 12th which Shang came out on top of.
The track was very wet for race four, with Jing Zefeng on reversed-grid pole. The safety car led the field through lap one, and Liu pitted for slick tyres at the end of the formation lap. Many others copied him as the race went green, which meant he went from 25th to 11th on lap one.
Zefeng led the way, Ciu and Pedersen fought, and liu was more than seven seconds per lap faster than everyone else on the wrong tyres as he charged into the lead on lap six. In the remaining seven laps he built a colossal 52.872s lead, Zefeng held off race-long pressure from Fu to finish second and Cui won his duel with Pedersen for fourth.
Results round-up
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Yuanpu Cui Black Blade Racing 37m15.977s
2 Oscar Pedersen Venom Motorsport +0.807s
3 Yuhao Fu Black Blade Racing +1.484s
4 Ethan Ho Team KRC +4.458s
5 Ke Shi Pointer Racing +5.752s
6 Zhanbin Jia Team KRC +6.920s
7 Kaishun Liu Black Blade Racing +7.896s
8 Fukang Jiang Blackjack Racing +8.212s
9 Zongyi Shang Venom Motorsport +8.524s
10 Zhenyu Zhu Happiness Racing +10.352s
Pole: Cui, 2m08.931s
Fastest lap: Cui, 2m07.270s
Race 2 (14 laps)
1 Jiang 33m32.520s
2 Liu +3.323s
3 Pedersen +3.698s
4 Ho +14.535s
5 Shi +14.994s
6 Jing Zefeng AdamCar Motorsport +16.987s
7 Shang +21.060s
8 Weibo Huang Pointer Racing +22.285s
9 Jia +22.484s
10 Yi Wang Champ Motorsport +22.978s
FL: Cui, 2m08.196s
Race 3 (16 laps)
1 Cui 33m54.410s
2 Liu +10.597s
3 Pedersen +12.002s
4 Jiang +21.573s
5 Shi +24.430s
6 Huang +33.765s
7 Ho +37.071s
8 Fu +40.901s
9 Wang +45.746s
10 Zefeng +57.738s
P: Cui, 2m07.800s
FL: Cui, 2m06.219s
Race 4 (13 laps)
1 Liu 32m08.055s
2 Zefeng +52.872s
3 Fu +53.125s
4 Cui +56.352s
5 Pedersen +57.008s
6 Wang +1m07.604s
7 Ho +1m09.041s
8 Jun Fei Geeke ACM Racing +1m15.332s
9 Wei Shi Geeke ACM Racing +1m24.739s
10 Jiang +1m26.439s
FL: Liu, 2m07.576s
Championship standings
1 Pedersen 247 2 Liu 225 3 Jiang 198 4 Alex Sawer 84 5 Yuzhe Wang 76 6 Jia 70 7 Xizheng Huang 69 8 Cui 62 9 Shi 62 10 Fu 54