Spanish F4 Winter Championship starts at Algarve with win for Tye

Photo: Spanish Winter Championship

The Spanish Formula 4 Winter Championship, also known as E4, began this weekend at Portugal’s Algarve circuit.

Pre-event testing kicked off track action on Friday, and Vivek Kanthan (Campos Racing) was fastest. He led Reno Francot (MP Motorsport) by 0.34 seconds, with Noah Monteiro (Campos) 0.474s behind in third.

After a break, the 32-car field headed back out for free practice and Monteiro set a 1m45.048s to pip Francot by 0.003s and Kanthan by 0.033s in FP1. Nathan Tye (Drivex School) trailed by 0.102s in fourth, and only three other drivers were within half a second of the pace but the top 23 were covered by a second.

Red flag periods caused by Aleix Pinera (Tecnicar Motorsport) and Kasper Schormans (MP) disrupted FP2, as a 1m45.747s put Monteiro on top by 0.193s over Kanthan.

It went wrong for Monteiro the next morning, as he caused a stoppage in qualifying one that meant he lined up 31st for the day’s races.

Kanthan clinched race one pole on his final lap, outpacing Tye by 0.013s and Francot by 0.124s. Schormans, Rocco Coronel (MP), Ty Fisher (Campos) and Jensen Burnett (Drivex) occupied the next places, and a second covered the top 18.

Those all drivers headed to the inside after launching off the line in race one, and Coronel made the best start to be third into the first turn. Tye got alongside Kanthan at turn three, and they pulled away as Schormans had a wide moment and Coronel broke his front wing.

Andrej Petrovic (Tecnicar) inherited third from eighth on the grid, Fisher took fourth from Coronel as lap two began and Coronel then bounced over turn one’s run-off kerbs and lost more places.

He parked up on lap four, as Philippe Armand Karras (G4 Racing), Dante Cima (Global Racing Service) and Simon Bulbarella (Drivex) had a big crash. The safety car was summoned, with Monteiro already into 11th.

Racing resumed on lap nine, and Tye took the lead into turn three. Kanthan tried getting back past on the outside of turn one next time by. That was the closest he got to reclaiming first place, and Tye won the 17-lap race by 0.571s.

Petrovic was busy holding off Tunon and Fisher through lap 10, but a lock-up on lap 11 meant Tunon got through while Fisher was demoted to sixth by a double dive from Burnett.

Monteiro cleared Daniel Kelleher (Campos) and Fisher early in lap 12, and when Schormans (who ended lap one in 22nd) overtook Kelleher a lap later he also joined the fight for fourth as Tunon escaped ahead.

Schormans and Fisher eached gained back a spot on lap 14, and Monteiro dived down Petrovic’s inside on lap 15 to lead the pack. He had the pace to pull away as Petrovic continued defending but still lost fifth to Schormans.

Race results (17 laps)