Red Bull junior Fionn McLaughlin claims maiden F4 victory at Algarve

Photo: Alpha Live

Red Bull junior Fionn McLaughlin claimed his maiden single-seater victory in Formula Winter Series’ third race at Algarve.

Edu Robinson topped Q2 on Saturday to claim pole. He denied US Racing team-mate Gabriel Gomez by 0.09 seconds with a 1m45.423s lap, and Hitech GP’s Leo Robinson was only 0.134s off the top.

There was 0.2s to US’s Maxim Rehm in fourth, with Hitech’s McLaughlin and Thomas Bearman, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Maximilian Popov, US’s Luka Sammalisto and Jenzer Motorsport’s Enea Frey filling the next positions.

Rain fell before track action began on Sunday, and drivers got a taste of conditions en route to the grid. Once there, many swapped from slicks to grooved tyres.

The front row duo remained on slicks, and got caught out when only three of the five lights on the start gantry illuminated. Poleman Robinson was slow off the line and Gomez initially profited before Jenzer’s Bart Harrison shot into the lead ahead of Bearman and McLaughlin.

An excellent move by McLaughlin around the outside of Bearman at turn seven earned him second but then red flags waved as the field was summoned back to the pits due to the technical issue with the start lights.

The half-hour race was shortened by two minutes, the field were put back into their original order ready for a restarting of the race behind the safety car 15 minutes later and teams were free to change tyres. Jenzer’s drivers remained on their wet tyres, the front row duo joined them on that compound, while others such as VAR committed to slicks.

The safety car led the field for two laps, and wet tyres proved to be the correct choice as on the lap three restart there was lots of sideways moments and many drivers slid off at turn one including Gomez and McLaughlin.

Gomez emerged with the lead, but a charging McLaughlin was able to literally slip by at turn six and soon Rehm was past Robinson too. Further back, AS Motorsport’s Andrea Dupe spun and the VAR drivers plummeted down the order.

McLaughlin was already 1.63s clear of Gomez at the end of the lap, and was 3.2s ahead a lap later. Rehm had lunged past Gomez on lap four, but Leo Robinson had then snuck by on the inside of both at turn two, and Rehm properly cleared Gomez at turn five but then had to pay attention to his mirrors rather than join Robinson in chasing the leader.

The gap up front reduced after that, and was down to 1.5s as lap 10 began. But McLaughlin had looked after his tyres and responded to Robinson by setting the fastest lap. At the end of the 14-lap race, just his third in single-seaters, he was 4.428s clear.

Gomez got back past Rehm around the outside of turn one on lap seven, but Rehm reclaimed third on the final lap.

Bearman was fifth, Sammalisto was a lonely sixth and Frey passed Harrison on the last lap for seventh. Edu Robinson continued to lose ground and finished 11th.

Race results (14 laps)