Home Formula 4F4 Middle East Olivieri grows F4 Middle East lead with Abu Dhabi race one victory

Olivieri grows F4 Middle East lead with Abu Dhabi race one victory

by Ida Wood

Photo: F4 ME

R-ace GP’s Emanuele Olivieri grew his Formula 4 Middle East points lead with victory in race one of round two at Yas Marina Circuit.

The poleman swept to the inside off the line to hold off Mumbai Falcons’ Kean Nakamura Berta and Tomass Stolcermanis, then Nakamura got alongside through the third corner and into the hotel section. However he then went off, rejoining still in second place, and the safety car was summoned at the end of the lap.

R-ace GP’s Alex Powell had risen from seventh to fourth before that, with Salim Hanna Hernandez (Mumbai Falcons), Reno Francot (Akcel GP) and Adam Al Azhari (Yas Heat Academy) occupying the next positions.

Racing resumed on lap three and Olivieri left it super late to return to racing speeds. Nakamura attempted a diving move on the leader into the final chicane but had another off and once again rejoined in second, as further back Evans GP’s Seth Gilmore spun.

Hanna got past Powell in fourth, then Powell moved back ahead on lap four. The battles behind were heating up until the safety car was summoned again on lap seven due to Pinnacle Motorsport’s Yuta Suzuki crashing into the barriers at the hotel section after contact.

The next restart was on lap 10, and Francot tried to pass Hanna into turn one. They clashed, with Hanna’s damaged car heading off the track and then to the pits.

Al Azhari went past Francot a few corners later to take fifth place, and behind Prema’s Sasha Bondarev went wheel-to-wheel with Evans GP’s Martin Molnar for seventh.

Olivieri built a gap of a second straight away, and continued to pull away to win the 15-lap encounter by five seconds.

Nakamura defended down the back straight through the final three laps, with Stolcermanis attempting to pass him around the outside at the final chicane on lap 14 and then diving down the inside on the final lap to snatch second place by 0.015 seconds.

Molnar held off Bondarev late on, and R-ace’s Alexander Savinkov passed Yas Heat’s August Raber at the bottom of the top 10.

Race results (15 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Emanuele Olivieri R-ace GP 30m36.046s
2 Tomass Stolcermanis Mumbai Falcons +5.915s
3 Kean Nakamura Berta Mumbai Falcons +5.930s
4 Alex Powell R-ace GP +6.978s
5 Adam Al Azhari Yas Heat Academy +8.247s
6 Reno Francot Akcel GP +11.465s
7 Martin Molnar Evans GP +13.891s
8 Sasha Bondarev Prema +14.489s
9 Alexander Savinkov R-ace GP +15.049s
10 August Raber Yas Heat Academy +16.139s
11 Newman Chi Prema +16.940s
12 David Cosma Cristofor Akcel GP +18.777s
13 Cole Hewetson Xcel Motorsport +21.279s
14 Aqil Alibhai Akcel GP +22.708s
15 Abdullah Kamel Xcel Motorsport +24.418s
16 Yuhao Fu Xcel Motorsport +24.973s
17 Kyuho Lee Pinnacle Motorsport +25.484s
18 Bader Al Sulaiti QMMF +27.345s
19 Yuzhe Wang Pinnacle Motorsport +27.860s
20 Emily Cotty R-ace GP +28.381s
21 Arjun Chheda Mumbai Falcons +30.238s
22 Tameem Hassiba QMMF +32.063s
23 Seth Gilmore Evans GP +32.508s
24 Tiago Rodrigues Evans GP +1 lap
25 Sebastian Wheldon Prema +1 lap
26 Farah Al Yousef Evans GP +1 lap
Ret Salim Hanna Hernandez Mumbai Falcons
Ret Yuta Suzuki Pinnacle Motorsport
Ret Taha Hassiba QMMF
Fastest lap: Olivieri, 1m46.877s

Championship standings
1 Oliveri 114   2 Nakamura 84   3 Stolcermanis 76   4 Francot 45   5 Wheldon 38   6 Al Azhari 38   7 Powell 33   8 Chi 22   9 Savinkov 21   10 Molnar 20