
Photo: F4 Middle East
Mumbai Falcons’ Tomass Stolcermanis claimed his maiden single-seater win in race two of the Formula 4 Middle East season at Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday.
Xcel Motorsport’s Cole Hewetson started the reversed-grid race two on pole, but was slow off the line and immediately lost out to Yas Heat Academy’s Adam Al Azhari and Stolcermanis.
Akcel GP by PHM Racing’s Hamda Al Qubaisi started from the pits, and halfway through lap one Prema’s Newman Chi was spun by Hewetson. He was struck by other cars despite being off-track, with Salim Hanna Hernandez of the sister Mumbai Falcons team having to change his front wing on lap two.
Stolceramis passed Al Azhari on that lap and never looked back, although had his gap cut by the safety car leading the field through lap six. Sasha Bondarev (Prema) and Farah Al Yousef (Evans GP) pitted on lap three, and two laps later Tiago Rodrigues (Evans GP) had an incident with Arjun Chheda (Mumbai Falcons) that required him to replace his front wing and put his opponent out of the race.
R-ace GP’s Emanuele Oliveri and Alex Powell, who had started 10th and 26th, were up to fifth and seventh when racing was neutralised, and on the restart lap Akcel GP’s Reno Francot lost out to Mumbai Falcons’ Kean Nakamura Berta and Olivieri while Powell cleared Hewetson.
Powell dived down the inside of Francot at the hairpin on lap nine, as Hewetson lost another spot to Prema’s Sebastian Wheldon.
Some reckless weaving by Al Azhari down the back straight on lap 10 as he tried to defend actually cost him second at the final chicane and then third to Olivieri at turn one.
Stolcermanis pulled away from the new fight for second between Nakamura and Olivieri. They clashed at the final corner on lap 11, then Oliveri tried going around the outside at turn one. That failed, and when Nakamura got defensive into the final chicane on lap 13 it set up another shot for Olivieri as they returned to turn one. He stayed alongside for longer this time but still could not get ahead, but when Nakamura tried defending down the back straight Olivieri slipstreamed past.
Nakamura promptly reclaimed the runner-up spot by sweeping around Olivieri’s outside at turn one on the final lap, and the battle continued into the final corner but there was no further change of position.
Powell meanwhile cleared Al Azhari with a dive at the hairpin on lap 12, with Francot just failing to get past the Emirati too in a photo finish.
Wheldon and R-ace’s Alexander Savinkov were seventh and eighth, with Hewetson moving up and down the order before a 10-second penalty demoted him from ninth to 18th. That helped Chi’s recovery back up to 13th, with Rodrigues making it back up to 15th.
Race results (15 laps)
Pos | Driver | Team | Time |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Tomass Stolcermanis | Mumbai Falcons | 30m47.362s |
2 | Kean Nakamura Berta | Mumbai Falcons | +2.361s |
3 | Emanuele Olivieri | R-ace GP | +2.897s |
4 | Alex Powell | R-ace GP | +4.081s |
5 | Adam Al Azhari | Yas Heat Academy | +7.636s |
6 | Reno Francot | Akcel GP | +7.735s |
7 | Sebastian Wheldon | Prema | +8.246s |
8 | Alexander Savinkov | R-ace GP | +9.552s |
9 | Martin Molnar | Evans GP | +19.391s |
10 | Yuhao Fu | Xcel Motorsport | +20.347s |
11 | Yuta Suzuki | Pinnacle Motorsport | +21.210s |
12 | David Cosma Cristofor | Akcel GP | +21.680s |
13 | Newman Chi | Prema | +22.496s |
14 | Emily Cotty | R-ace GP | +23.573s |
15 | Tiago Rodrigues | Evans GP | +25.374s |
16 | Seth Gilmore | Evans GP | +25.784s |
17 | Salim Hanna Hernandez | Mumbai Falcons | +26.871s |
18 | Cole Hewetson | Xcel Motorsport | +28.655s |
19 | Kyuho Lee | Pinnacle Motorsport | +30.172s |
20 | Taha Hassiba | QMMF | +31.369s |
21 | Abdullah Kamel | Xcel Motorsport | +31.672s |
22 | Yuzhe Wang | Pinnacle Motorsport | +34.112s |
23 | Bader Al Sulaiti | QMMF | +37.477s |
24 | August Raber | Yas Heat Academy | +1 lap |
Ret | Farah Al Yousef | Evans GP | |
Ret | Arjun Chheda | Mumbai Falcons | |
Ret | Sasha Bondarev | Prema | |
Ret | Tameem Hassiba | QMMF | |
Ret | Hamda Al Qubaisi | Akcel GP | |
Fastest lap: Nakamura, 1m56.331s
Championship standings |