Strauven’s Spanish F4 winning run at Algarve continues

Photo: Spanish F4

Thomas Strauven won Spanish Formula 4’s third race at Algarve, marking his fifth victory at the circuit this year.

The Campos Racing driver did the double at the Portuguese track in the Spanish F4 Winter Championship in February, then won all three races this weekend.

Strauven’s team-mate Jan Przyrowski beat him to race three pole, and both got beaten to the opening corner of the race by MP Motorsport’s Ean Eyckmans who took the outside line to shoot into the lead. Przyrowski lost second at turn three, got back ahead at turn four then remained alongside Strauven for several corners. That brought MP’s Juan Cota into the mix.

Eyckmans had a 1.5-second gap by lap two, and after the battle for second died down they started to draw in the leader.

However on lap four Strauven tried passing at turn five, and that meant the gap grew back to 1.4s. The pair were far faster than Eyckmans, and got onto his tail as lap nine began. Przyrowski drove around the outside of Eyckmans at turn one, and Strauven followed through on the inside at turn three.

They quickly pulled away from Eyckmans, so could continue their own battle. Strauven locked up with a failed dive at turn three on lap 11, then at turn one on the next lap he went around the outside of Przyrowski for the lead.

Przyrowski initially stayed in Strauven’s wheeltracks, before his team-mate made enough of a gap to not be challenged.

Eyckmans lost third on lap 13, with Cota going to the inside of him at turn one, and Campos’s Noah Monteiro finished fifth.

There were more battles behind, and as in the previous races MP’s former points leader Rene Lammers was heavily involved. Before the start, he was demoted from fifth to 11th in race two’s results by a five-second penalty.

Lammers passed Campos’s Miguel Costa for seventh at turn one on lap three, then went off at turn five and rejoined back alongside him. They remained that way through to turn eight, where MP’s Reno Francot tried to get involved but spun.

On lap nine Lammers took sixth from MP’s Niklas Schaufler, who lost out to Rodin Motorsport’s Nathan Tye on the penultimate lap. Tye started 15th, and was in the top 10 by lap four by overtaking Tecnicar Motorsport’s Andrej Petrovic. He cleared Campos’s Matus Ryba on lap six, then Costa on lap eight.

There was drama further down the order in the race’s second half, as Tecnicar’s Nacho Tunon spun around the front of Monlau Motorsport’s Alexander Jacoby at turn one and his team-mate Andre Rodriguez crashed out.

Race results (18 laps)