The showcase of the new generation of Tatuus F4 cars, Charlie Wurz was victorious in the exhibition race of the F4 UAE season. 

By Charlie Parker

In the showcase of the new generation of Tatuus F4 cars, Charlie Wurz claimed his maiden single seater victory in an all Prema podium.

Wurz managed to fend off his Prema teammates of Conrad Laursen and Andrea Kimi Antonelli to claim his first victory at the revamped Yas Marina track.

On his victory, Charlie said: “I’m very happy to have won the Trophy Round here in Abu Dhabi in front of the F1 paddock. I managed to overtake for the lead after a good launch from P2 on the grid. I kept my head down after the opening lap to open up a gap and the fastest lap with it.”

Antonelli, who dominated both practice and qualifying, could only manage third but finished just four seconds behind Wurz and only one and half seconds off of Laursen.

Antonelli: “It has been a great experience. I had the chance to learn a new car, and I got great chemistry with it. The weekend went well until the race as I got my first pole. After that, I made a mistake on cold tyres which cost me several positions and compromised the outcome.”

Incidents

It was an incident riddled race as on lap one, Rik Koen locked up going into turn nine and span the fourth Prema of Hamda Al Qubaisi. The Emirati driver in turn collided with Miron Pingasov in the MP, breaking the Russians front wing, forcing him to pit. This brought out the safety car.

On the restart Koen was once again involved in a collision as he ran wide at turn 14, straight into Xcel Motorsport’s Aiden Neate. Leaving Koen with no choice but to retire due to the damage.

Dilano Van’t Hoff was giving the Prema’s a run for their money but a collision with Antonelli dropped him out of the race. The incident was investigated by the stewards after the race but it was deemed a racing incident.

Vladislav Ryabov, who will compete in the whole season with GRS, claimed best of the rest after finishing fourth in his MP car. 

Jamie Day finished fifth in the other Xcel car, ahead of Al Qubaisi in sixth. Aiden Neate finished seventh. Miron Pingasov finished in eighth after he could not find the pace to catch back up to the field.

The F4 UAE officially kicks off on January 12^th, where a grid of more than 20 cars is expected.

Header photo credit: Prema Racing