Powell dominates at Dubai but Olivieri grows F4 Middle East lead again

Photo: F4 ME

Alex Powell dominated Formula 4 Middle East’s reversed-grid race at Dubai Autodrome, but R-ace GP team-mate Emanuele Olivieri grew his points lead again in a similarly charging drive.

The top 10 from race one were reversed to form the grid’s front five rows, putting Xcel Motorsport’s Yuhao Fu and Powell in first and second. Powell had reportedly picked up a puncture in the previous race.

Dust on the track meant those towards the front had the hardest job and the best starts were made by those further down the grid. Fu led into turn one, where Prema’s Sasha Bondarev swept around the outside of Powell.

He reclaimed second place a few corners later, as Fu locked up multiple times but kept the lead. At the last corner, Akcel GP by PHM Racing’s Yuta Suzuki spun off on the sand and the safety car was summed on lap two.

Powell had gone around the outside of Fu at the end of the back straight, and Mumbai Falcons’ Tomass Stolcermanis and Kean Nakamura Berta had demoted their Prema stablemate Newman Chi to sixth before racing was neutralised.

Evans GP’s Seth Gilmore and Tiago Rodrigues pitted at the end of the lap, with the latter retiring.

Powell brought the field back to racing speeds at the end of lap four and immediately gapped Fu. Stolcermanis overtook Bondarevn on the inside at turn two on the restart lap, with Nakamura following him through a few corners later. Chi tried to get by too but they collided, promoting Olivieri to fifth.

The rest of the race was lonely for Powell, as he pulled further away and met the chequered flag on lap 14 with a 6.8-second gap.

Fu’s race went downhill, as Stolcermanis went to the inside of him at the end of the back straight on lap six and Olivieri did the same a lap later after he had fought his way past Nakamura on the previous lap in a move completed at the final corner. Nakamura went around the outside of him at turn one on lap eight, then Mumbai Falcons’ Salim Hanna Hernandez got past at the end of the back straight. Errors on lap 10 put him behind R-ace’s Alexander Savinkov, and he finished seventh.

Olivieri began attacking Stolcermais that lap, and he got alongside at turn one next time by. Stolcermais defended through lap 13, then on the final lap Olivieri nosed ahead down the pit straight but Stolcermanis braked late to hold position. That compromised his exit though, and Olivieri snatched second at turn three.

A big lock-up a few corners later then left Stolcermanis wildly defending against Nakamura, who got past by darting into a tiny gap on Stolcermanis’s inside at the end of the back straight.

Prema’s Sebastian Wheldon climbed 10 place on lap one, two on lap two and four on the restart lap. He then spent the race’s second half attacking Yas Heat Academy’s Adam Al Azhari for eighth but was unable to get past.

Race results (14 laps)