The fifth and final round of F4 UAE took place at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi with Charlie Wurz winning the title, holding off a late surge from Rafael Camara, who does leave with the rookie championship. There was, once again, no streaming for this round so let’s go through what we know from the weekend.
By Charlie Parker
Wurz wins the title in race three after Camara crash
A win and a second place from Camara in the first two races had put Wurz in trouble, with the Austrian now only a race win ahead. Camara started race three in first with Wurz in third. They both got away well with Alex Dunne splitting the two cars after a couple minutes of racing.
However, the Brazilian lost his front wing and had to retire from the race whereas Wurz calmly took his car home in second, claiming the title with a race to go. It wasn’t all bad this weekend for Camara as he did claim the Rookies’ Championship.
The red flag situation happened again…
Remember in round three how Alex Dunne was the only one on the grid after a red flag and everyone who went to the pit lane received a five second penalty? Well, it happened again in race two, with a few minor tweaks to spice it up.
All drivers did make their way onto the grid, but in an orderly queue behind each other instead of filling up the grid spots. Nikita Bedrin, who was leading the race so he was at the front, was in the first grid slot so he was the only driver not to receive a five second penalty for breaching article 39.3 of the regulations.
Camara overtook Bedrin on track with a couple laps remaining but could not pull out a five second advantage, handing the PHM Racing driver the win.
Camara has a chance to be Brazil’s next best thing
To be in championship contention despite missing the entire first round is insane. It took a round to warm up once he got into the competition, claiming only 17 points in round two at Dubai. But the Brazilian then went on a tear.
Camara won half of the remaining twelve races while also picking up two further podiums and some people have wondered how different the championship would have been if he had attended every race. It will be interesting to see how the Brazilian performs in this year’s Italian F4 series.
Hitech GP beat out PHM Racing to the “Not Prema Teams Championship”
An incredible drive that saw Dunne put his Hitech on the podium allowed Hitech top leapfrog PHM Racing in the standings into third, sitting behind Prema and Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema.
PHM Racing went into the final race two points ahead with Jonas Ried starting in third and Dunne in 11th. Dunne would slither his way through the field while Ried dropped out of the top 10.
Bedrin tried to salvage the points with an amazing drive, starting 29th and finishing sixth with the other PHM of Taylor Barnard finishing 10th but the six-point differential meant Hitech edge them out by four points.
It was, however, PHM’s first outing as a team so they will be pleased with the three wins and seven further podiums that they picked up this season.
Header photo credit: Prema Racing
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