
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 |