Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee
Rintaro Sato has lost his podium finish in the FIA Formula 4 World Cup’s qualification race to a penalty.
The Honda junior qualified seventh, and gained two spots into Lisboa on lap one as two drivers crashed ahead. Later around the lap another two crashers meant Sato was up to third, then following a safety car period he held the place until the last lap.
He came under attack from Jules Roussel going into Lisboa that tour, and exiting Melco hairpin briefly moved up to second as Fionn McLaughlin crashed out. But he was then compromised and was overtaken by Roussel at the race’s final corner.
Third then became 11th post-race as Sato was handed a 10-second stop-go penalty, converted into a 30s penalty. It was issued as Sato had been delayed leaving the grid on the formation lap, dropping to eighth, and did not return to seventh before the first safety car line as required.
Sato had been “very happy” with finishing third, and called the opening lap “really tough” as it was “so hard to avoid the crashes”. He also revealed two moments that led to the late pressure from Roussel, and how his qualifying crash then contributed to the Frenchman passing him.
“So in the [previous] lap, I hit the wall a little bit and I think that the car [was] a bit broken. I think I got slow puncture in the last few laps. So it was a bit hard to block Roussel coming behind me.
“In the last lap, the second place [driver McLaughlin], he crashed after the Melco hairpin. And I needed to hit the brake to avoid it, and at that time Jules was literally behind me, he was in my [gearbox], and in the last two corners it was a bit hard to block him because I crashed yesterday in the qualifying. I had a bit, you know, it was scaring me to go in a bit too much [there].”
Before the penalty was applied, Sato was feeling confident about main race but will now be lining up eight places lower than expected. Rayan Caretti and Ary Bansal will now be the row two starters on Sunday.