Photo: Chinese F4
Chinese Formula 4 finally made its first visit to Tianfu International Circuit last weekend for round two of its season.
The ‘European-style’ FIA Grade 2 track was suppose to host the championship last October, but was not ready to be raced on.
Drivers got two practice sessions to learn it, and Oscar Pedersen set a 1m21.632s in FP2 to lead Fukang Jiang by 0.103 seconds. Kaishun Liu was 0.34s behind in third and Xizheng Huang was the only other driver within a second of the pace. The top six in the 22-car field were covered by 2.171s.
It became more competive in qualifying, with Huang beating Pedersen to race one pole by 0.03s in Q1. Jiang was just 0.092s behind in third, and Liu was 0.725s off pole in fourth. This time 1.921s covered the top eight.
Pedersen returned to the top in Q2, bagging race three pole with a 1m21.108s laptime that was 0.708s faster than anyone else could manage. Jiang was second, Huang was 1.046s slower than Pedersen in third, and Liu was 1.175s back in fourth.
Huang slid out of his grid slot in race one but kept the lead, while Jiang passed Pedersen into turn one. Jing Zefeng and Peng Yang collided, with only the latter continuing in the race. Pedersen reclaimed second late in lap one with a move that sent Jiang bouncing across the run-off and down the order, then a safety car period began so Zefeng’s car could be retrieved.
Racing resumed on lap six and Pedersen took the lead by forcing Huang into defending deep. By lap nine he was 2.3s clear, an further back Yi Wang tried a double move on Zhanbin Jia and Ke Shi at turn one but spun and sent Shi into retirement. The safety car was needed but only appeared on lap 12, then returned to the pits on lap 16. The top four broke away over the remaining three laps, with Pedersen victorious by 2.634s over Huang. Liu and Jiang were third and fourth.
Jia Li had reversed-grid pole for race two ahead of Andy Law, Jun Fei and Siqi Zhang. Li stalled, Fei jumped the start then stopped in the middle of the track, Law then stalled and Zhang threaded between them to lead before Fei’s car got struck by Albert Cheung and then went into the path of another car, destroying all three.
Red flags waved and the race restarted 20 minutes later. This time Law took the lead into turn one, and when Jia tried a diving move on him later in the lap it instead put them both under pressure from Jiang. At the hairpin Law got sandwiched and Jiang slipped down the inside for the lead while Jia started to drop places.
On lap two Pedersen passed Law, then Liu and Jia did too, and the gap between the top two closed as Jiang encountered traffic to lap. Zhenyu Zu then stopped on lap eight, prompting the safety car to appear. Nobody moved his car so red flags waved on lap 12, and the race restarted with another lap behind the safety car.
There were then three laps of racing, and Jiang held off Pedersen to win. Huang was third, ahead of Liu and Jia.
Pederen dominated race three, but had to contend with another pointlessly long safety car period early on as a recovery vehicle watched rather than retrieved Patrick Tsang’s beached car. Allen Lu crashed on the restart lap, meaning the safety car was called even though he got going again, and before that Jiang got demoted to fourth by Liu and Huang. He dived past Liu on lap 15, who then came under pressure from Jiang while Pedersen pulled away by 15.047s.
Yi Wang started on reversed-grid pole in race four, and Liu went from eighth to second on lap one. He took the lead on lap two, grew his lead on lap five as battles heated up behind, and was 10s ahead after 10 laps. But lapped traffic then proved hard to navigate, and Huang began to close in. By lap 17 he was on his tail, and thought about passing on lap 21. Liu tried breaking the tow on lap 23, then the pair collided. Liu managed to get going again and met the chequered flag still in first, but with red flags waving. The results were therefore taken back by a lap, and with Huang being penalised 10s for the clash it meant Liu won by 10.423s.
Jiang took third from Pedersen on lap 18 as they lapped traffic, Jia had a messy race but still finished fifth, and Wang came home seventh.
Results round-up
Race 1 (18 laps)
1 Oscar Pedersen Venom Motorsport 32m14.180s
2 Xizheng Huang Black Blade Racing +2.634s
3 Kaishun Liu Black Blade Racing +3.909s
4 Fukang Jiang BlackJack Racing +4.297s
5 Yuzhe Wang Venom Motorsport +9.299s
6 Zhanbin Jia Team KRC +12.147s
7 Siqi Zhang Xiamen Pointer Racing +15.186s
8 Jun Fei Geeke ACM Racing +16.014s
9 Andy Law Champ Pro Racing +16.167s
10 Jia Li Wolf.51GT3.COM +18.221s
Pole: Huang, 1m22.204s
Fastest lap: Pedersen, 1m21.787s
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Jiang 32m00.554s
2 Pedersen +0.418s
3 Huang +1.623s
4 Liu +6.144s
5 Jia +10.317s
6 Yuzhe Wang +10.618s
7 Yi Wang Champ Motorsport +17.088s
8 Ke Shi Pointer Racing +18.893s
9 Jing Zefeng AdamCar Motorsport +19.243s
10 Peng Yang Venom Pole Motorsport +21.838s
FL: Pedersen, 1m22.728s
Race 3 (20 laps)
1 Pedersen 31m31.378s
2 Huang +15.047s
3 Liu +15.760s
4 Jiang +16.106s
5 Yuzhe Wang +24.612s
6 Jia +30.281s
7 Shi +33.052s
8 Zhang +35.038s
9 Zefeng +40.974s
10 Yi Wang +48.563s
Pole: Pedersen, 1m21.108s
FL: Pedersen, 1m21.413s
Race 4 (22 laps)
1 Liu 30m40.098s
2 Huang +10.423s
3 Jiang +11.389s
4 Pedersen +19.296s
5 Jia +30.241s
6 Yuzhe Wang +37.164s
7 Yi Wang +41.737s
8 Shi +42.161s
9 Zefeng +43.712s
10 Zhang +46.830s
FL: Huang, 1m22.147s
Championship standings
1 Pedersen 110 2 Jiang 101 3 Kaishun Liu 100 4 Huang 69 5 Jia 40 6 Yuzhe Wang 36 7 Alex Sawer 35 8 Ruiqi Liu 25 9 Zefeng 20 10 Yi Wang 20