Euro F4: Freddie Slater doubles up in the rain at the Red Bull Ring, VAR completes podium
Red Bull Ring, Austria - More rain at the Red Bull Ring for the second round of the Euro 4 Championship, with a wet track this morning for the second of three races of the weekend. The start took place behind the safety car, with the actual race beginning a few laps later. Freddie Slater secured his second consecutive victory, along with the Championship lead with 79 points. The Prema Racing British driver started second and took the lead with a controversial overtake on his teammate Tomass Stolcermanis. For this move, Slater received a post-race 5-second penalty, but it did not change the outcome, as he crossed the finish line first with an 11.298-second gap from the nearest rival. Latvian Stolcermanis, starting from pole position, led the race in the early stages before being overtaken on the inside. The driver left space for the maneuver, but ended up being off the track, losing several positions. Rejoining the race in sixth place, he later gained one position in a great battle with Prema Racing’s Rashid Al Dhaheri, finishing fifth and second on the Rookie podium. The second and third steps of the overall podium for Race 2 were claimed by two Van Amersfoort Racing drivers: Sweden’s Gustav Jonsson and Japan’s Hiyu Yamakoshi. The two teammates engaged in an exciting battle to determine the final order, with Yamakoshi closing in with greater speed, but Jonsson skillfully defended his position before stabilizing the situation.
Fourth place went to US Racing’s German driver Maxim Rehm, who won the Rookie race. Rashid Al Dhaheri finished sixth, behind Stolcermanis. In seventh place, completing the Rookie podium, was Kean Nakamura-Berta, the Anglo-Japanese driver for Prema and member of the Alpine Academy. Eighth place went to Gianmarco Pradel, the talented Australian driver from US Racing, followed by PHM AIX Racing’s Maksimilian Popov. Completing the top 10 and earning the last point in Race 2 was Swiss driver Ethan Ischer of Jenzer Motorsport. Just outside the points was British driver Deagen Fairclough, making his debut in the competitive Euro 4 Championship battleground with Hitech GP. Previous Championship leader Akshay Bohra also left without points. The US Racing driver, coming off two wins at Mugello, started from 15th on the grid. Falling back to 17th, he skillfully recovered positions in the challenging conditions of Race 2, eventually finishing 12th. Bohra remained second in the standings with 66 points, ahead of Yamakoshi with 58 points, and Jonsson with 54 points.
Freddie Slater: “Being behind cars, is impossible to see. I didn’t expect to actually go racing that condition, but we did. When I got in front I had better visibility, but it was super difficult for all the drivers. All the drivers did mega, fair play for everybody for keeping on track. It was a good race, I’m looking forward for Race 3, see what the weather does. [On the battle with Stolcermanis] He went for the inside, I didn’t have quite as much power down, and he got in front, and then it was just kind of whoever fit the corner. We are looking into it, and see what happened, it’s hard to say when I’m in the cockpit. Obviously, I didn’t mean to do it on purpose, I’d rather finish 1-2 with Prema.”
Gustav Jonsson: “Very wet condition. It was just managing, you couldn’t see much, so it was just about staying behind and just finding the best lines. I saw Stolcermanis and Slater, they collided, so I picked up one of the places. After that, I was just managing the gap, trying to keep the tires alive. We struggled a lot with the front tire. I had no grip, so I couldn’t really attack on Slater at all, I was just managing the P2. We did that quite well and we got another double podium for VAR, so it feels very good.”
Hiyu Yamakoshi: “I’m quite happy about getting the podium with a wet condition. I’ve shown a good pace in the rain, very positive. Yesterday I was a bit unlucky, someone hit me from behind, but today was a good recovery. [For Race 3] I don’t know if it will be wet or dry, but we have good pace in both conditions, I will try my best of course. Hopefully, I can win, or get some points for the Championship.”