Photo: Top Speed
Thailand’s twisty and undulating Bangsaen street circuit hosted round three of the Formula 4 South East Asia season this weekend as a support to its grand prix.
The action began with free practice one on Thursday, and Evans GP’s Alex Sawer set a 1m42.059s to lead Star Performance’s Ayrton Asdathorn by 1.611 seconds. Nobody else lapped at representative pace.
FP2 followed on Friday, and Sawer improved to 1m38.607s to lead Asdathorn by 0.916s. Evans GP’s Seth Gilmore was 1.955s back in third. BlackArts Racing’s Joshua Berry hit the barriers exiting turn two and injured his wrist, so withdrew from the round.
The half-hour qualifying session took place in the afternoon, and there was early traffic problems despite plenty of room on track.
Sawer set a 1m38.884s eight minutes in, putting him 0.48s ahead of Asdathorn. His next effort was a 1m38.435s, which Asdathorn came 0.205s shy of.
BlackArts’ Rishon Rajeev set a 1m40.4931s in fourth, then improved to 1m40.469s and third place on his next lap but would go no faster.
He was demoted back to fourth 12-and-a-half minutes in, as Evans GP’s Seth Gilmore posted a 1m39.914s and found another 0.107s on his next lap.
Drivers then pitted, with Inigo Anton (BlackArts) and Zhongwei Wang (Origine Motorsport) improving to 1m41.274s and 1m41.477s respectively in fifth and sixth.
Wang brought out red flags on his next lap by sliding into the barriers. The clock did not stop, and under seven minutes remained when qualifying resumed.
Sawer encountered traffic and could not improve, while Asdathorn set a new personal best of 1m38.557s then with 80s to go snatched pole with a 1m38.178s. He had time for one more lap, but spun exiting turn 15.
His second-best lap earned him race two pole by just 0.005s over Sawer, with Gilmore a further 1.352s back.
Four drivers got race one grid penalties for violating red flag rules and Rajeev received another for impeding Sawer, who inherited pole. Anton started ahead of Rajeev.
The front row starters were slow off the line, and Gilmore squeezed between them for the lead. Asdathorn took second into turn one, and kept with Gilmore through lap one.
Sawer looked to Asdathorn’s inside on lap two at turns two, seven and then 18, where he got back past. He then pressured Gilmore through lap three, and as they exited the esses he had barriers to the right and Gilmore’s car underneath as he rode over the top of him and smashed into the turn 15 barriers at high speed.
The safety car came out, and on the restart Asdathorn was close through the twisty sections. Gilmore ran wide exiting turn 18 and Asdathorn went through, with Rajeev watching on from behind.
He was soon dropped, and Asdathorn built a 1.9s lead before team-mate Worapong Aiemwichan crashed at turn 15 on lap 12 and the safety car returned.
Racing resumed on the final lap, and Asdathorn crossed the line in first. Anton attempted to go around the outside of Rajeev at turn one and could not get through, but when the on-the-road winner got a five-second penalty for weaving after turn 17 during a safety car period it promoted Anton onto the podium and handed victory to Gilmore.
Gilmore got a penalty too, but it was a one-place drop on race two’s grid.
Sawer made another bad start in race two and Gilmore again sought a gap to move forward. But the spaces closed and it was Rajeev who got ahead of Sawer.
Lap two began with Sawer going around the outside of Rajeev at the high-speed turn one. By lap four he was attacking Asdathorn, and got very close in the esses. He was all over him on lap five too, and dived down the inside at turn 18 for the lead.
Sawer immediately pulled away, and was 8.75s up the road when the safety car appeared on the penultimate lap due to BlackArts’ Ben Nguyen crashing his damaged car at turn two.
Gilmore had pressured Rajeev from lap six to lap 15, when he spun at turn 12 and was almost hit as he got going again. But the damage from hitting the barriers then meant he stopped on the pit straight with a lap remaining.
Results round-up
Race 1 (14 laps)
1 Seth Gilmore Evans GP 29m18.948s
2 Rishon Rajeev BlackArts Racing +1.887s
3 Inigo Anton BlackArts Racing +2.335s
4 Ayrton Asdathorn Star Performance +4.351s
5 Ben Nguyen BlackArts Racing +5.511s
6 Thomas Lee Evans GP +7.479s
7 Zhongwei Wang Origine Motorsport +8.843s
8 Worapong Aiemwichan Star Performance +4 laps
Ret Alex Sawer Evans GP
Pole: Sawer, 1m38.435s
Fastest lap: Asdathorn, 1m39.442s
Race 2 (17 laps)
1 Sawer 30m18.973s
2 Asdathorn +0.950s
3 Rajeev +2.707s
4 Anton +3.805s
5 Wang +5.173s
6 Lee +8.029s
7 Gilmore +1 lap
8 Aiemwichan +1 lap
9 Nguyen +3 laps
P: Asdathorn, 1m38.557s
FL: Sawer, 1m37.688s
Championship standings
1 Sawer 218 2 Gilmore 146 3 Rajeev 124 4 Anton 118 5 Asdathorn 96 6 Wang 77 7 Lee 74 8 Nguyen 58 9 Meng Cheng 33 10 Joshua Berry 25