Photo: Spanish Winter Championship
Noah Monteiro and Boris Lyzen won the first two Spanish Formula 4 Winter Championship races at Jarama.
There was several moments of major drama that interrupted race one, which Campos Racing’s Monteiro was triumphant in. He started on pole ahead of team-mate Vivek Kanthan, MP Motorsport’s Rocco Coronel, Campos’s Ty Fisher and Drivex School’s Nathan Tye.
Kanthan looked to Monteiro’s outside at turn two on the opening lap, but lost out to Coronel a few corners later and was sent off slightly. Tye overtook Fisher, and MP’s Kasper Schormans passed Tecnicar Motorsport’s Andrej Petrovic for ninth before the safety car was called.
MP’s Louis Cochet, TC Racing’s Maria Germano Neto and Monlau Motorsport’s Miki Blascos had all got beached in the gravel at turn two, and the clean-up operation meant racing did not resume until lap 10. During the interruption, the safety car appeared to shed its own debris which Coronel drove over.
On the restart, Tye ploughed into Kanthan’s rear under braking for turn two and sent him spinning. He caught Coronel’s rear-right wheel, and both went off into the gravel but were able to rejoin at the back of the field. Monteiro was left with a sizeable lead over Fisher, and continued pulling away until the race was ended by red flags just as lap 15 began.
Tye overtook Fisher on lap 11, but a 10s penalty meant Fisher reclaimed second and Tye finished 15th. That also cost Tye the points lead to Monteiro.
TC Racing’s Beau Lowette was third, and fourth place was disputed by Tecnicar’s Nacho Tunon and Schormans until a huge crash that ended the race. Tunon was classified fourth when the results were taken from the last completed lap, while a five-second penalty demoted Schormans to 12th. Campos’s Daniel Kelleher profited to finish fifth, and MP’s Reno Francot was sixth after Petrovic was another to get a five-second penalty and dropped to 17th.
The top 12 from qualifying were reversed to form the front of race two’s grid, putting MP’s Lyzen on pole ahead of Petrovic and Schormans.
Lyzen led the 14-lap race lights-to-flag, but results were taken from lap 12 and then lap 11.
Tunon started fourth and had a half-spin on lap one that dropped him to 14th. Coronel also fell down the field as he did get off the grid until lap two. That meant the field had to be guided by the safety car through the pits at the end of lap one, and racing resumed on lap three with Lyzen streaking away.
Schormans attacked Petrovic hard, but on lap four Francot starting pressuring him. On lap 10 he started locking up, and a huge one a lap later allowed Francot to get past. He continued locking up, and after the chequered flag waved on lap 12, he lost five further places as drivers continued racing through to the end of lap 14.
The final results put him back into fourth, between Francot and Tye. Kanthan was sixth, while Kelleher and Monteiro got from row six up to seventh and eighth.
Results round-up
Race 1 (13 laps)
1 Noah Monteiro Campos Racing 24m58.257s
2 Ty Fisher Campos Racing +3.004s
3 Beau Lowette TC Racing +5.211s
4 Nacho Tunon Tecnicar Motorsport +5.523s
5 Daniel Kelleher Campos Racing +6.669s
6 Reno Francot MP Motorsport +8.155s
7 Fausto Arnaudo Monlau Motorsport +8.511s
8 Borys Lyzen MP Motorsport +8.828s
9 Jensen Burnett Drivex School +9.237s
10 Simon Bulbarella Drivex School +9.696s
Fastest lap: Monteiro, 1m32.603s
Race 2 (11 laps)
1 Lyzen 18m20.225s
2 Andrej Petrovic Tecnicar Motorsport +5.454s
3 Francot +7.461s
4 Kasper Schormans MP Motorsport +7.840s
5 Nathan Tye Drivex School +7.899s
6 Vivek Kanthan Campos Racing +8.382s
7 Kelleher +9.138s
8 Monteiro +9.538s
9 Tunon +11.402s
10 Fisher +11.977s
FL: Lyzen, 1m32.439s
Championship standings
1 Monteiro 64 2 Tye 62 3 Tunon 40 4 Francot 38 5 Petrovic 37 6 Kanthan 35 7 Kelleher 26 8 Rocco Coronel 23 9 Schormans 22 10 Fisher 19