Olivieri wins from pole in dusty first F4 Middle East race at Dubai

Photo: F4 ME

R-ace GP’s Emanuele Olivieri grew his Formula 4 Middle East points lead by winning from pole in race one at Dubai Autodrome.

Olivieri topped the first qualifying session in the morning by setting a 2m01.470s on his penultimate lap. It was a benchmark team-mate Alex Powell got within 0.219 seconds of on his final effort.

Mumbai Falcons’ Tomass Stolcermanis qualified third, 0.471s behind, and only six others were within a second of Olivieri’s pace. The slowest driver, Evans GP’s Farah Al Yousef down in 28th place, was 8.694s off the pole time.

Stolcermanis’s team-mates Salim Hanna Hernandez and Kean Nakamura Berta started immediately behind him, Yas Heat Academy’s Adam Al Azhari qualified sixth, and Prema duo Sebastian Wheldon and Newman Chi filled row four of the grid.

Akcel GP by PHM Racing’s Reno Francot and Evans GP’s Tiago Rodrigues completed Q1’s top 10, and R-ace’s Alexander Savinkov was without his usual top 10 consistency as he was 1.394s slower than Olivieri in 13th.

The track was incredibly dusty for the race, with drivers ploughing through it as they launched off the line. It reduced grip levels as well as visibility, and several drivers went off at turn one but successfully used the escape road. Powell lost out to Stolcermanis and then Nakamura on lap one, with Stolcermanis also able to pass Olivieri.

The poleman got back alongside the new leader down the pit straight at the start of lap two and looked for the outside line at turn one before tucking back in. The safety car soon appeared as Wheldon and Xcel Motorsport’s Abdullah Kamel tangled at a hairpin and their cars had to be cleared. R-ace’s Emily Cotty pitted for a new nosecone, and Francot had an incident that dropped him to the back. Xcel’s Cole Hewetson also had to pit.

Akcel GP’s David Cosma Cristofor followed the safety car out of the pits, and he was not waved past it until halfway through lap four.

Racing resumed on lap six and Yas Heat’s August Raber immediately went off at turn one after contact with Mumbai Falcons’ Arjun Chheda. Hanna went around the outside of Powell at the hairpin at the end of the back straight, then Chi also got through, and Olivieri was lining up a pass on Stolcermanis just when the safety car was called back out.

Stolcermanis weaved down the pit straight on the lap 10 restart, but Olivieri nosed ahead before turn one. Braking later on the inside put Stolcermanis back ahead, but he went deeper into the corner and Olivieri took back the lead around the outside of turn two.

Olivieri pulled away for his fifth win as Nakamura pressured Stolcermanis, and Powell dropped to ninth. He was demoted further on lap 11 by Xcel’s Yuhao Fu, but red flags waved so the race results were taken from the previous lap.

Savinkov rose up to seventh behind Al Azhari, the pair among only four drivers to score in every race this year.

Race results (10 laps)