Photo: Top Speed
Christian Costoya and Sasha Bondarev won UAE4’s second and third races at Dubai Autodrome today.
QMMF by Hitech’s Nasser Al Thani missed the reversed-grid race two due to amassing too many penalty points, and at the front of the 38-car grid was Xcel Motorsport’s Jarrett Clark. Prema’s Costoya started second, ahead of PHM Racing’s Iacopo Martinese, Prema’s Payton Westcott and R-ace GP’s Emily Cotty.
Costoya took the lead on the inside before the opening corner, and at turn two Mumbai Falcons’ Alp Aksoy had a race-ending collision. Xcel Motorsport’s Joseph Smith retired in the pits, and Pinnacle Motorsport’s Ryusho Nakazato came in for a new nosecone. The clean-up required a safety car intervention, and the field was released again on lap three.
There was lots of fighting in the points positions thereon. Clark held off Westcott until she was overtaken by R-ace’s Andy Consani on lap four, but Prema’s David Cosma Cristofor was able to clear both. Bondarev passed Mumbai Falcons team-mate Niccolo Maccagnani for seventh, and the top 10 was completed by R-ace’s race one winner Kenzo Craigie and Yas Heat Academy’s Adam Al Azhari.
Consani went past Cosma at turn 10 on lap five, and Craigie overtook Maccagnani. Once they were back on the pit straight, Consani took third and Bondarev overtook Westcott. Bondarev also got ahead of Cosma before the safety car was called and then red flags waved, as a crash had sent Evans GP’s Rafael Vaessen rolling repeatedly.
The race restarted with two laps behind the safety car, and the order at the time red flags waved. When the field was released, three laps remained. Consani took two attempts to demote Martinese to third on the restart lap, then tried chasing McLaren junior Costoya who picked up his first car racing win.
Bondarev overtook Clark through turn 10 on the final lap, and Maccagnani retired in the pits after dropping out of the points. Hitech GP’s Scott Lindblom started 36th but charged to 10th.
Qualifying two set race three’s grid, and Craigie set a 2m00.3s to comfortably claim pole by 0.496 seconds over Bondarev. Consani was pipped to second by 0.005s, and trailing by 0.919s and 0.996s respectively in fourth and fifth were Aksoy and Cotty. While the top five were spread out on pace, a second split the next 21 drivers.
Vaeesen had to miss the race and a two-place penalty put Maccagnani 10th on the grid, behind Cosma, Lindblom, Hitech’s Theo Palmer and Costoya.
Craigie moved to the inside then back to the outside down the long pit straight on lap one, but Bondarev was still able to sweep around his outside at the first corner to take a lead he would not give up. Aksoy grabbed third, and at turn six there was deamatic contact as Yas Heat’s Zakaria Doleh drive over the rear of R-ace’s Tamas Gender but the latter carried on driving for several corners with Doleh riding on top.
Cosma tried passing Aksoy into turn 10, and actually completed the pass exiting the corner before Aksoy got back alongside. Consani was ahead of both before the safety car was deployed, and Martinese and then Mumbai Falcons’ Kingsley Zheng pitted.
When racing resumed on lap four, Consani made a late dive on Craigie into turn 10 and there was almost contact. After that, the top two began pulling away.
Lindblom climbed from eighth to sixth ahead of Palmer, Cotty and Maccagnani. The latter two swapped places after a three-wide moment into turn one on lap five, then Costoya and Pinnacle’s Rowan Campbell-Pilling passed Cotty too.
There was another three-wide move four laps later. Maccagnani and Costoya went past Palmer down the pit straight, and Cotty made progress attempting tried getting alongside Palmer through turn one. She had another go but on the outside on the penultimate lap.
Craigie got back onto Bondarev’s tail with two laps to go, and at turn 10 he feinted a move on the final lap which led to Bondarev locking up. The leader stayed ahead though, and victory extended his points lead.
Lindblom overtook Aksoy for fifth mid-race, but a 10s penalty for causing a collision demoted him to seventh behind Maccagnani and Costoya while Aksoy dropped to ninth late on.
Results round-up
Race 2 (10 laps)
1 Christian Costoya Prema 26m02.588s
2 Andy Consani R-ace GP +0.739s
3 Iacopo Martinese PHM Racing +1.817s
4 Sasha Bondarev Mumbai Falcons +3.932s
5 David Cosma Cristofor Prema +4.766s
6 Jarrett Clark Xcel Motorsport +5.713s
7 Kenzo Craigie R-ace GP +5.770s
8 Payton Westcott Prema +6.244s
9 Adam Al Azhari Yas Heat Academy +7.555s
10 Scott Lindblom Hitech GP +8.141s
Fastest lap: Costoya, 2m02.858s
Race 3 (14 laps)
1 Bondarev 31m43.874s
2 Craigie +0.800s
3 Consani +4.864s
4 Cosma +12.822s
5 Niccolo Maccagnani Mumbai Falcons +17.835s
6 Costoya +21.535s
7 Lindblom +24.179s
8 Theo Palmer Hitech GP +26.158s
9 Alp Aksoy Hasan Mumbai Falcons +26.421s
10 Cotty +26.655s
Pole: Craigie, 2m00.300s FL: Bondarev, 2m02.393s
Championship standings
1 Bondarev 157 2 Consani 133 3 Craigie 102 4 Cosma 79 5 Maccagnani 73 6 Costoya 59 7 Lindblom 47 8 Aksoy 46 9 Cotty 37 10 Al Azhari 33