Photo: Brazilian F4
Murilo Rocha won twice in the penultimate round of the Brazilian Formula 4 season at Interlagos.
The round was originally scheduled to take place at Brasilia on November 29/30, but was relocated and postponed at short notice.
It was a busy Wednesday, with two practice sessions, qualifying and race one. In practice, Cavaleiro Sports’ Alceu Feldmann Neto set the pace by 0.153 seconds over Rocha, who had swapped from Bassani Racing to TMG Racing. Bassani’s Renzo Barbuy was third, 0.23s behind.
Rocha moved to the top in qualifying, earning race three pole by 0.146s. Heitor Dall’Agnol and Pietro Mesquita completed a TMG 1-2-3 covered by 0.267s, and Cavaleiro’s Rogerio Grotta pipped Feldmann to fourth by 0.005s.
Points leader Dall’Agnol’s closest title rival and team-mate Filippo Fiorentino was 1.371s off the pace, leaving him 14th.
On second-best laptimes, Rocha took race one pole by 0.18s over Dall’Agnol, with Mesquita 0.522s behind in third and 0.053s ahead of Feldmann. Fiorentino was slowest of all in the 16-car field.
Rocha lost the lead off the line to Dall’Agnol at the start of race one, and at turn four Mesquita went around the outside of him too. Mesquita then attacked the new leader, who responded with fastest laps. On lap five his lead suddenly grew as technical trouble led to Mesquita slowing and having to pit.
Rocha inherited second, 1.1s behind, with Feldmann and the fast-starting Pedro Lima further back. The gap between the two gradually decreased, and they began lap 17 side-by-side. Dall’Agnol kept the lead through the first two corners but then went over the kerbs too roughly and Rocha snatched a position he would not give up.
Lima was on Feldmann’s gearbox by lap 10, and tried passing around the outside ar turn one on lap 14. He locked up, Feldmann locked up too and slid into Lima. The slightest contact sent him spinning, and he lost third.
Fiorentino took two laps to enter the top 10, made it to fifth on lap seven and stayed there for the rest of the race. He slipped to fourth in the standings though, with Lima becoming Dall’Agnol’s main title rival.
Grotta finished eighth, putting him on reversed-grid pole for race two on Thursday. TMG’s Cadi Baptista started alongside him but stalled, and Bassani’s Ciro Sobral clouted Baptista with his rear-left wheel. The safety car was summoned to clear their cars, then red flags waved on lap three.
TMG Racing’s Marcelo Hahn had taken second off the line, but Fiorentino overtook him before racing was neutralised.
The race restarted behind the safety car for one lap (which counted as lap three), then nine laps of green flag action remained.
Pedro Lins drove into the rear of Bassani team-mate Christian Helou on lap four, copping himself a drive-through penalty and enough damage to require retiring, and on lap five Fiorentino tried passing Grotta for the lead around the outside of turn one. He slid over turn two’s kerbs and Lima got involved.
Fiorentino got past Grotta later in the lap, but both were overtaken by Lima who then pulled away to win. Hahn finished fourth, and in a distant fifth Feldmann held off a train of cars including Dall’Agnol in eighth.
Race three was absolutely full of wheel-to-wheel action, but Rocha scarcely saw it as he pulled two seconds clear in two laps and went on to win by 5.482s. Mesquita started strongly to take second, then had Feldmann and Dall’Agnol on his gearbox until both got past on lap three.
Dall’Agnol pressured Feldmann a lot late on and finished 0.361s behind to move one step closer to the title.
The battling outside the top five was so constant that Baptista finished 23s behind Rocha in sixth. For lap after lap he fought with Grotta, but in the end it was a charging Lins who he held off. Fiorentino’s title hopes ended in 12th place.
Results round-up
Race 1 (20 laps)
1 Murilo Rocha TMG Racing 32m37.442s
2 Heitor Dall’Agnol TMG Racing +0.607s
3 Pedro Lima Bassani Racing +13.082s
4 Alceu Feldmann Neto Cavaleiro Sports +15.997s
5 Filippo Fiorentino TMG Racing +16.672s
6 Marcelo Hahn TMG Racing +19.355s
7 Cadi Baptista TMG Racing +19.660s
8 Rogerio Grotta Cavaleiro Sports +22.456s
9 Christian Helou Bassani Racing +24.845s
10 Enricco Abreu Cavaleiro Sports +25.842s
Pole: Rocha, 1m36.810s
Fastest lap: Rocha, 1m37.117s
Race 2 (12 laps)
1 Lima 22m34.998s
2 Fiorentino +1.374s
3 Grotta +3.061s
4 Hahn +4.777s
5 Feldmann +9.873s
6 Pietro Mesquita TMG Racing +10.210s
7 Rocha +10.617s
8 Dall’Agnol +11.037s
9 Abreu +12.339s
10 Helou +17.742s
FL: Lima, 1m37.384s
Race 3 (20 laps)
1 Rocha 32m30.988s
2 Feldmann +5.482s
3 Dall’Agnol +5.843s
4 Mesquita +9.395s
5 Lima +9.865s
6 Baptista +23.304s
7 Pedro Lins Bassani Racing +23.693s
8 Federico Diaz Cavaleiro Sports +25.636s
9 Grotta +30.157s
10 Renzo Barbuy Bassani Racing +35.638s
P: Rocha, 1m36.764s
FL: Rocha, 1m36.959s
Championship standings
1 Dall’Agnol 231 2 Rocha 169 3 Lima 166 4 Fiorentino 142 5 Lins 92 6 Feldmann 92 7 Ethan Nobels 85 8 Mesquita 76 9 Grotta 68 10 Sobral 59