Stevenheydens takes reversed-grid Navarra win in Spanish F4 WC

Photo: Spanish Winter Championship

MP Motorsport’s Yani Stevenheydens won a wet reversed-grid Spanish Formula 4 Winter Championship race at Navarra.

Track conditions were so bad that race control chose to start the race behind the safety car, and it led the field for two laps before green flags waved.

Campos Racing’s Miguel Costa was at the front, ahead of Drivex School’s Filippo Fiorentino, Stevenheydens, Campos’s Matus Ryba and MP’s Ean Eyckmans. Costa really bunched up the field before setting off to racing speeds, and it seemed to be successful to some degree as he escaped everyone in the pack bar Stevenheydens over the course of lap three.

Stevenheydens took a few corners to clear Fiorentino, who then thought for third with Ryba until they made contact that sent the latter into a half-spin and then into retirement. Ryba pitted for repairs, and Drivex’s Christopher Feghali struck trouble that left him stranded after turn three.

Only yellow flags waved locally at first, and it looked like it could impact the lead fight. Stevenheydens pressured Costa through the final sector of the first lap of racing, and began lap four just 0.098 seconds behind. He moved ahead at turn two, and then the pair came across Feghali’s car and had to slow down.

Soon the safety car was called back out, and for the lap eight restart the top two were followed by Campos’s Thomas Strauven, Eyckmans and Campos’s Vivek Kanthan. Eyckmans and Strauven immediately engaged in battle, swapping third place twice and soon losing sight of the two ahead.

Stevenheydens pulled away to win by almost three seconds, Strauven held on to third to lead the points going into the title-deciding race, and MP’s Niklas Schaufler grabbed fourth from Eyckmans in a photo finish by 0.018s.

Rene Lammers lost out in the last laps and finished ninth, behind Kanthan, Rodin Motorsport’s Nathan Tye and MP team-mate Hudson Schwartz before the finish. The race’s big loser was Campos’s Jan Przyrowski, who is Strauven’s title rival and could only come home in 13th.

Race results (9 laps)