Powell pips Nakamura by 0.057s in thrilling final lap fight for F4 ME win

Photo: F4 ME

Alex Powell made it two Formula 4 Middle East victories in a row at Dubai Autodrome in race three of the weekend.

The R-ace GP driver earned pole in the second qualifying session on Saturday morning, and he had it in the bag fairly early.

No representative laptimes were set until the session’s second half, with Powell posting a 2m00.701s that went unbeaten in the final six minutes. His team-mate Emanuele Olivieri was 0.128 seconds slower than him at that point, but reduced the gap to 0.034s with two minutes to go.

That meant Mumbai Falcons’ Kean Nakamura Berta qualified third with a personal best less than 0.1s slower than Powell’s and Akcel GP by PHM Racing’s Reno Francot went fourth fastest with five minutes left of qualifying but was half a second off pole.

Mumbai Falcons’ Salim Hanna Hernandez and Tomass Stolcermanis and Yas Heat Academy’s Adam Al Azhari were the only other drivers within a second of Powell.

Pinnacle Motorsport’s Yuzhe Wang and Yas Heat’s August Raber were the slowest of all as Wang punctured and Raber was primarily stuck in the pits.

Olivieri and Nakamura ran alongside Powell at the start of the race, and Nakamura took second place on the outside line at turn one. Stolcermanis passed Hanna, and Powell weaved down the back straight as he tried to break the tow.

He did the same on lap two, and Francot got on the inside of Olivieri going up the hill. That then became the outside line, and he went off but rejoined alongisde. Olivieri kept him at bay, and when Francot got boxed in at turn one the next lap Stolcermanis swept past him.

Francot sought to regain fourth on lap four, then on lap five he was run off-track down the back straight but still got back past Stolcermanis at the next corner. Hanna almost collided with Stolcermanis there on lap six but got past, which was investigated, and after that the top six stabilised until lap 11.

Nakamura lunged down the inside of Powell at turn one, and bouncing off a kerb stopped him from making contact with his rival. They ran side-by-side through to turn three, where Nakamura took the lead.

He was on the defensive continually following that, but on the 15th and final lap lost the lead entering the back straight. Another lunge got him back alongisde at the end of it, and he reclaimed the lead at the next hairpin. Powell cannily set up a switchback going up the hill, and with better drive got on the outside of Nakamura with two corners to go.

They ran side-by-side to the finish, although Powell went off entering the pit straight, and victory was decided by 0.057s.

Olivieri defended against Francot late on, Sebastian Wheldon passed Prema team-mate Sasha Bondarev mid-race for seventh and Evans GP’s Tiago Rodrigues took ninth from Al Azhari in a photo finish.

Race results (15 laps)