Home Formula 4F4 Middle East Olivieri and Powell claim F4 Middle East pole double for R-ace GP

Olivieri and Powell claim F4 Middle East pole double for R-ace GP

by Ida Wood

Photo: F4 Middle East

R-ace GP duo Emanuele Olivieri and Alex Powell shared the poles in qualifying for the opening Formula 4 Middle East round at Yas Marina Circuit.

There were two 15-minute qualifying sessions, and in Q1 it was initially Reno Francot – driving for the PHM Racing-supported Akcel GP team – that set the pace.

He led team-mates David Cosma Cristofor and Hamda Al Qubaisi, with Prema’s Sebastian Wheldon and Kean Nakamura Berta of sister team Mumbai Falcons the only other drivers to broken the two-minute barrier after three laps.

Pinnacle Motorsport’s Kyuho Lee broke up those two teams’ stronghold at the top with a 1m57.775s that put him in second, as Xcel Motorsport’s Abdullah Kamel went fifth fastest. With seven minutes to go, his team-mate Yuhao Fu set a new 1m57.487s benchmark on his third lap.

Francot improved to 1m56.780s on his fourth lap to briefly reclaim top spot before Nakamura set a 1m56.101s to lead his team-mates Salim Hanna and Tomass Stolcermanis by 0.197s and 0.219s respectively.

Powell got within a tenth of a second of Nakamura’s pace, and soon Francot was down to eighth place. His next lap then got deleted for track limits abuse, as Olivieri set a 1m55.708s that would not be beaten.

Wheldon improved in third, and Yas Heat Academy’s Adam Al Azhari went fifth fastest but was half a second off the pace.

Powell reclaimed second place with his sixth lap, a 1m55.915s, and Hanna made gains in sixth place. Nakamura found more pace but remained in third next time buy, as Evans GP’s Tiago Rodrigues jumped from 25th to eighth.

There was another improvement from Powell after the chequered flag but he still couldn’t better Olivieri.

In the second session, Nakamura was the first driver into the 1m55s with his first flying lap, which Hanna then bettered by just one thousandth of a second.

A full course yellow would follow after August Raber stopped in Turn 9, after which Nakamura returned to top spot with a lap almost a quarter of a second faster than his previous effort.

Inside the final three minutes, Olivieri slotted into second place, 0.1s from Nakamura, with Powell taking fourth.

The R-ace GP pair would then take over at the top of the timings, Powell initially leading Olivieri by 0.026s. Both would go even faster at the chequered flag, Powell setting a 1m55.241s to take pole by 0.015s over Olivieri.

Nakamura and Stolcermanis ended up almost half a second back to form the second row of the grid.

Results round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Emanuele Olivieri R-ace GP 1m55.708s
2 Alex Powell R-ace GP +0.123s
3 Kean Nakamura-Berta Mumbai Falcons +0.373s
4 Sebastian Wheldon Prema +0.476s
5 Adam Al Azhari Yas Heat +0.476s
6 Salim Hanna Prema +0.585s
7 Tomass Stolcermanis Mumbai Falcons +0.612s
8 Tiago Rodrigues Evans GP +1.054s
9 Newman Chi Prema +1.057s
10 Reno Francot Akcel GP +1.072s

Race 3 grid
1 Powell 1m55.241s
2 Olivieri +0.015s
3 Nakamura +0.483s
4 Stolcermanis +0.490s
5 Al Azhari +0.556s
6 Hanna +0.640s
7 Wheldon +0.835s
8 Francot +0.862s
9 Rodrigues +0.878s
10 Chi +1.089s