Photo: F4 Middle East
R-ace GP’s Emanuele Olivieri and Alex Powell were fastest in Formula 4 Middle East’s two qualifying sessions at Yas Marina Circuit.
In Q1, almost the entire field headed out straight away and a 2m09.072s lap from Evans GP’s Martin Molnar was the benchmark at first.
Pinnacle Motorsport’s Yuzhe Wang lowered the pace to 1m59.123s five-and-a-half minutes in, and stayed on top for almost two minutes before Yas Heat Academy’s August Raber set a 1m57.312s.
He had a big gap to the rest of the field, and was still on provisional pole by 1.6 seconds when R-ace’s Alexander Savinkov moved up to second place.
There was lots of change at the top nine minutes in. Yas Heat’s Adam Al Azhari moved ahead with a 1m56.131s, leading the Prema-run Kean Nakamura Berta, Salim Hanna Hernandez, Sebastian Wheldon, Sasha Bondarev and Tomass Stolcermanis.
R-ace’s drivers crossed the line 40s later and went one-two. Olivieri set a 1m55.936s, and Powell posted a 1m56.012s.
Molnar improved to seventh place with just over four minutes to go, and shortly after that Stolcermanis lowered the pace to 1m55.763s. Nakamura set a 1m56.104s in fourth, and there were improvements from Hanna and Wheldon in sixth and seventh.
Even more pace was found by Nakamura on his next lap, but a 1m55.996s only moved him up one spot. Bondarev rose to sixth, and Savinkov went eighth fastest ahead of fellow improvers Wheldon and Raber.
With a minute to go, Stolcermanis was demoted to second by a 1m55.571s from points leader Olivieri and after the chequered flag Akcel GP by PHM Racing’s Reno Francot slipped into ninth place.
Xcel Motorsport’s Yuhao Fu was quiclet through the first third of Q2, then Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation’s Bader Al Sulaiti surprised by posting a 2m01.975s and thrn a 1m56.363s that kept him on top ahead of Fu through to the last five minutes.
That is when all the more likely pole contenders rose up the order, and Olivieri set a 1m55.385s to lead Stolcermanis and Francot. Powell then jumped them all, setting a 1m55.330s as Nakamura rose to fourth ahead of Hanna and Molnar.
Many of the drivers improved again on their next lap, and Stolcermanis got within 0.043s of Powell. Molnar set a 1m55.935s in sixth, ahead of Bondarev, Al Azhari and Akcel’s David Cosma Cristofor.
With just over a minute remaining there was drama as the Mumbai Falcons and R-ace drivers almost crashed into each other as they bunched up while actually trying to get clean air ahead of their final laps, and that contributed to almost no improvements at the end of Q2.
Powell secured pole for race three, and Al Azhari did make a small gain but remained in eighth.
Results round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Emanuele Olivieri R-ace GP 1m55.571s
2 Tomass Stolcermanis Mumbai Falcons +0.192s
3 Alex Powell R-ace GP +0.264s
4 Kean Nakamura Berta Mumbai Falcons +0.425s
5 Adam Al Azhari Yas Heat Academy +0.560s
6 Sasha Bondarev Prema +0.570s
7 Salim Hanna Hernandez Mumbai Falcons +0.751s
8 Alexander Savinkov R-ace GP +0.767s
9 Reno Francot Akcel GP +0.767s
10 Sebastian Wheldon Prema +0.808s
Race 3 grid
1 Powell 1m55.330s
2 Stolcermanis +0.043s
3 Olivieri +0.055s
4 Nakamura +0.214s
5 Hanna +0.296s
6 Martin Molnaer Evans GP +0.605s
7 Bondarev +0.620s
8 Al Azhari +0.687s
9 David Cosma Cristofor Akcel GP +0.725s
10 Francot +0.735s