Yevan David takes pole in Motorsport Games F4 qualifying

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Sri Lanka’s Yevan David drove his Tecnicar Motorsport-run car to pole in Motorsport Games Formula 4 qualifying.

Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit was wet from overnight rain, so drivers used grooved tyres. Matus Ryba had a half-spin at turn one on his first flying lap, and others quickly found spots of the track where they could be easily caught out.

Free practice pace-setter Ariel Elkin came into qualifying with a three-place grid penalty hanging over his head, having crossed over the pit exit line while on a flying lap in practice.

There was more punishments to be handed out in qualifying, as drivers headed out without their rain lights on due to weather conditions being dry. Some made a quick return to the pits to rectify this, while Gino Trappa continued to drive without his on and was black flagged. Francisco Macedo was one of the other drivers to get black flagged for track limits abuse.

Reza Seewooruthun was quickest at first in the 25-minute session, setting a 1m49.324s to go a second clear at the top.

Elkin beat him by 0.195 seconds eight minutes into qualifying, but Seewooruthun responded with a 1m47.652s as water was displaced and track conditions improved. Nicky Gauci had a spin at that point, but got going again, and Chester Kieffer reduced Seewooruthun’s advantage to 0.585s.

David trimmed that gap even more, getting within 0.471s of the provisional poleman, then at the 10-minute mark Seewooruthun improved again to 1m46.790s.

His 1.333s gap at the top was reduced slightly by Kieffer shortly after, then David lapped just 0.054s slower than Seewooruthun as Elkin went third fastest with a 1m48.134s.

Macedo broke into the 1m47s to move up to third, then Kieffer took over the position approaching the halfway point of qualifying.

Griffin Peebles had no laptimes to his name at this point due to repeated track limits transgressions, and soon Juan Cota was in third place and less than 0.4s off pole.

Seewooruthun was finally toppled again with 11-and-a-half minutes to go, as a 1m46.275s from David put him 0.515s ahead. Ryba and Kieffer went third and fourth fastest, and Kieffer then improved again to third but was more than a second slower than David.

There was drama at turn 12, but it did not disrupt the session, as Tosei Moriyama and Gauci clashed and spun when the former tried passing the latter.

Two successive improvements from Seewooruthun did not actually bring him closer to pole, since David also found more pace and set a 1m45.806s with nine minutes remaining.

Ryba, Peebles and Elkin filled the next three places two minutes later, as David had his best lap deleted and his advantage slashed to 0.267s. Cota then cut it further to 0.143s, before both David and Seewooruthun set personal bests and there was 0.574s between the top two.

Peebles pipped Seewooruthun by 0.006s, Cota got within 0.063s and then 0.007s of David, and by the end just 0.1s covered the top four completed by Andres Cardenas.

Qualifying results