Nael takes his and Sainteloc Racing’s first Spanish F4 win at Aragon

Photo: Sainteloc/Dutch Photo Agency

Theophile Nael scored his and Sainteloc Racing’s first Spanish Formula 4 win in the third and final race of the weekend at Motorland Aragon.

From third on the grid, Nael took second from Valerio Rinicella at the first corner and then overtook polesitter Matteo De Palo into the turn 8/9 chicane.

Heading onto lap two, Nael was still having to defend from the two drivers he had just passed, before the safety car was deployed to retrieve the stranded car of Fernando Barrichello.

Nael got a good restart and was already 0.6 seconds ahead at the start-finish line.

Further back, Noah Stromsted repassed championship leader Pedro Clerot, having lost the place while trying to attack Enzo Deligny for fourth.

Stromsted’s Campos Racing team-mate and race two winner Christian Ho then tried to make a move on Clerot, but soon crawled to a halt with broken left-rear suspension, triggering another safety car.

Just eight minutes remained when racing resumed and Nael soon started to pull away while De Palo fell into the clutches of Deligny, who had gone around the outside of Rinicella to claim third in the first corner of the restart.

With two minutes to go, Red Bull junior Deligny made a late dive down the inside of team-mate De Palo to seal a fine weekend with two second-places to add to his race one win.

There was drama behind in the fight behind the podium places. Clerot divebombed both Stromsted and Rincicella at the hairpin, forcing his MP Motorsport team-mate way off track and down to ninth.

Stromsted survived to take fourth with Keanu Al Azhari nipping through to fifth. Rinicella recovered back ahead of Ricardo Gracia and Jeronimo Berrio to finish just three tenths of a second behind Clerot.

Race result (15 laps)