Spanish F4 title fight swings Colnaghi’s way with one race to go

Photo: Spanish F4

Mattia Colnaghi moved into the Spanish Formula 4 points lead ahead of the title decider by winning a disrupted race two of the weekend at Barcelona.

Several drivers stalled at the start, with MP Motorsport’s poleman Griffin Peebles lurching forward from his grid spot then stopping and thankfully being avoided by the rest of the field who rushed past.

His team-mate Colnaghi led into turn one, with Drivex School’s Juan Cota rising from sixth on the grid to challenge MP’s incumbent points leader Keanu Al Azhari for second place. They ran side-by-side down to turn one, where Al Azhari held the position on the inside before losing it to Cota before turn four.

Lots of drivers cut turn two, and Cota pressured Colnaghi until the safety car neutralised the action on lap two. Wiktor Dobrzanski (Tecnicar Motorsport) had spun off, and there had been a collision between Chase Fernandez (Rodin Motorsport) and Lenny Ried (Monlau Motorsport).

Racing resumed on lap five and Campos Racing’s Ernesto Rivera tried slipstreaming past Al Azhari. He defended and held his position, before filling Cota’s mirrors later in the lap.

Cota had a lock-up on the next lap but Al Azhari could not profit from it, and Colnaghi weaved down the straights to try to break the tow to his two pursuers. They began lap seven still closely bunched, with similar gaps to the rest of the drivers in the top 10 as nobody attempted passing.

Al Azhari put Cota under pressure again at turn on lap eight before the safety car returned due to Drivex’s Matus Ryba spinning out of 10th.

The next restart was on lap 10 and Cota pre-empted Colnaghi’s early return to racing speeds. Jan Przyrowski went side-by-side with team-mate Rivera at turn one and ended up losing out to other team-mate Nathan Tye, with a huge squabble forming that enabled the top three to break away.

Al Azhari dives down the inside of Cota at the turn 10 hairpin and they ran side-by-side all the way through to turn 13 where – since the chicane-free layout was being used – Cota was able to assert himself in second again.

Colnaghi benefited to build a gap of 0.9 seconds, while Przyrowski got past Tye and Rivera.

As they began lap 12 the race was neutralised again due to a big crash for Rodin’s Peter Bouzinelos, and since the safety car stayed out until the finsih it secured the victory and points lead for Colnaghi.

Further drama came after the race, as Al Azhari was handed a five-second penalty for track limits abuse that dropped him to 19th and grew Colnaghi’s lead from three to 15 points.

Campos’s Enzo Tarnvanichkul charged up from 27th on the grid to finish 16th, and Sainteloc’s Lorenzo Castillo spun on the formation lap but was able to start the race and came home 26th.

Race results (13 laps)