Ugochukwu fights back against Wharton for F4 win in Kuwait

Photo: F4 UAE

McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu won the second Formula 4 United Arab Emirates race at Kuwait Motor Town to extend his points lead.

The Prema driver started on pole courtesy of setting the fastest lap in race one, and resisted pressure from Mumbai Falcons pair Tuukka Taponen and James Wharton through the first lap before the safety car was called out due to two crashes.

The first of those took place on the grid, between Hitech GP’s Kanato Le and PHM Racing’s Jakob Bergmeister, and it led to concrete dust having to be laid down on the track due to displaced fluids from the cars involved.

Hiyu Yamakoshi and Flavio Olivieri also had a crash, which sent the former into immediate retirement.

The safety car led the field through the pitlane at the end of lap one while the clear-up was still taking place, then the race was red flagged.

It later restarted with two laps behind the safety car, and once the drivers were released the battling started straight away. The top three went three-wide into turn two on the first green flag lap and Ugochukwu remained in the lead, with the Mumbai Falcons drivers and MP Motorsport’s Valerio Rinicella not far behind.

With a few laps to go Wharton managed to make use of the slipstream to pass Ugochukwu for the lead, but further around the lap Ugochukwu darted down his inside to regain the position and hold on to it until the finish.

R-ace GP’s Zachary David had some clear air in fifth, while Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael was the centre of the rest of the race’s drama as he initially tried to hold on to sixth place.

PHM pair Valentin Kluss and Noah Stromsted were his first opponents, with Hitech’s Arvid Lindblad also briefly involved in the fight until an incident sent him falling down the field.

Kluss managed to demote Nael to seventh, then Stromsted passed him and also got by his team-mate to get into sixth.

Nael’s next fight was against Yas Heat Academy’s Keanu Al Azhari, with a queue of other cars behind him, and in the end he just manahed to hold on to eighth. But a 10-second post-race penalty was then applied, dropping Nael to 15th.

Race results (10 laps)