Photo: F4 Middle East
Sebastian Wheldon won his first international Formula 4 race with Prema as Kai Daryanani claimed the Formula Trophy title in the final round at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina circuit.
The eldest son of late IndyCar champion and double Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon finished third in the F4-based USF Juniors in his native United States this year and has been testing with Prema in Europe.
The Andretti junior driver retained his usual yellow, white and black livery of main sponsor Gainbridge as he replaced series leader Rashid Al Dhaheri in the Prema line-up, with the Emirati preferring to focus on his imminent step up to Formula Regional.
Wheldon was close to pace in the open practice held on Friday evening – after Formula 2’s post-season test concluded – and Saturday morning’s sole free practice session, before claiming pole position by 0.215 seconds ahead of team-mate Chi Zhenrui in the first qualifying session. Chi would take pole for race two, ahead of Kabir Anurag and Wheldon.
Unaccustomed to standing starts, Wheldon’s initial reaction when the lights went out at the beginning of race one was a slow one, allowing Chi to take the lead.
Wheldon stayed close however, and on lap four he dummied Chi at the end of the back straight to dive down the inside of Turn 6. He locked up under braking but got the run on Zhi on the exit to take the lead prior to Turn 9.
While Chi had to defend from Daryanani one lap later, Wheldon was able to pull away and sealed victory by 5.5s.
Alpine junior Kabir Anurag capitalised on Zhi’s defence against Daryanani to take the undercut in Turn 9 and move up to third, but their duel would flare up again at the end of the race.
Daryanani dived inside Anurag at Turn 5 on the penultimate lap and they ran wheel-to-wheel down the pit straight and into Turn 6, before Anurag cut across the inside of Turn 7 to hold on to the place. They went side-by-side again at the same place on the last lap, with Daryanani this time scampering across the run-off area to finish third. Anurag would later be given a 5s penalty for crowding another driver in Turn 9, demoting him to seventh.
That cut Daryanani’s deficit to Al Dhaheri to 12 points ahead of the final race and, with one win against Al Dhaheri’s two, the Evans GP driver needed a podium finish to snatch the crown.
Daryanani made an ideal start in that regard, moving up from fourth to second off the line as Anurag claimed the lead. Chi and Wheldon ended the first lap down in fourth and fifth with August Raber climbing up to third.
Xcel Motorsport’s Anurag ultimately sealed his second win of the campaign by 3.1s ahead of Daryanani, who finished 5.3s in front of Raber and claimed the title by six points over Al Dhaheri.
The three Prema drivers would have a mainly private battle between themselves. Wheldon would get ahead of Chi on lap three when they went side-by-side into the hotel section and, with Wheldon locked up, Chi ran off track and dropped backwards.
Salim Hanna would go wheel-to-wheel with Wheldon before the end but couldn’t find a way by. Mentor Juan Pablo Montoya was seen in animated discussion with Prema personnel in pitlane after the race.
Gustav Jonsson also came into the weekend with a shot at the title but fell backwards from sixth place in race one before stopping with a puncture, and retired early in race two with apparent mechanical trouble.
Results round-up
Race 1 (14 laps)
1 Sebastian Wheldon Prema 27m18.910s
2 Chi Zhenrui Prema +5.577s
3 Kai Daryanani Evans GP +8.683s
4 Salim Hanna Prema +9.482s
5 Adam Al Azhari Yas Heat +12.681s
6 Cole Hewetson Xcel Motorsport +13.585s
7 Kabir Anurag Xcel Motorsport +13.946s
8 August Raber Yas Heat +16.017s
9 Aryaman Bansal Xcel Motorsport +17.095s
10 Nicolas Stati AGI Sport +20.329s
Pole position: Wheldon, 1m56.021s
Fastest lap: Wheldon, 1m56.465s
Race 2 (14 laps)
1 Anurag 27m16.642s
2 Daryanani +3.129s
3 Raber +8.490s
4 Wheldon +14.862s
5 Hanna +15.418s
6 Chi +15.683s
7 Stati +19.133s
8 Al Azhari +21.943s
9 Chase Fernandez Xcel Motorsport +24.014s
10 Bansal +24.910s
P: Chi, 1m55.843s
FL: Anurag, 1m56.642s
Championship standings
1 Daryanani 102 2 Rashid Al Dhaheri 96 3 Anurag 80 4 Jonsson 66 5 Chi 54 6 James Piszcyk 48 7 Hanna 40 8 Stati 39 9 Wheldon 37 10 Renot Francot 33