Wind, rain and fog caused the cancellation of several of this weekend’s single-seater sessions in Asia and North America, but several stories still emerged from an action-packed weekend. Read our review to find out what happened.

By Feeder Series

If you follow American single-seater racing, you’ve probably seen the headline by now: On Sunday evening, Robert Shwartzman became the first rookie to qualify on pole for the Indianapolis 500 since 1983 – and the first to do so on his oval racing debut since 1914 – in junior single-seater stalwarts Prema Racing’s first attempt at the race.

You may not have heard all that much about the other open-wheel series racing in North America, but there was plenty of action in the junior ranks too. Titus Sherlock swept the Formula Regional Americas round at Road America, though there was more variation – and plenty of penalties – in the two F4-spec support series.

Over in East Asia, Chinese F4 held its second round of 2025 at Shanghai, while Super Formula Lights also raced at Autopolis. And while not included in this report or yesterday’s European junior single-seater coverage, Russia’s SMP F4 series held its first round of 2025 at Moscow Raceway, which Kirill Kutskov left with two wins and a nine-point lead over single-seater newcomer Yaroslav Shevyrtalov.

Keep reading below for the updates from Asia and North America. You can also click the links for our reviews of F2, F3, and FRegional and F4 racing in Europe.

1. Super Formula Lights: Sano extends lead in fog-affected Autopolis round
2. Chinese F4: Dai takes maiden wins as Zhang maintains points lead
3. FR Americas: Sherlock dominates and takes points lead with clean sweep
4. F4 US: Hauanio survives chaos to win twice at Road America
5. Ligier Junior Formula Championship: Szuch wins twice post-race as Cará takes maiden victory

Super Formula Lights: Sano extends lead in fog-affected Autopolis round

In a weekend headlined by adverse weather, Yuki Sano scored his fourth consecutive win of the season in race one at Autopolis and finished second to Kaylen Frederick in race two to extend his commanding points lead to 25 heading into Okayama.

Though Sano ended the weekend in strong form, he was initially bested by three of the four B-Max cars. On Thursday and Friday, Frederick, Zachary David and Yuto Nomura topped all but one of the five practice sessions, with TOM’S Yuga Furutani the fastest car in free practice four.

The normally academic practice times proved crucial by Saturday, when track action was postponed as fog set in on the track. As a result, qualifying was cancelled and the first two races were pushed back to Sunday, while the third race was postponed to an unspecified future round.

The fastest times in free practice five thus determined the grid for race one, meaning Nomura started on pole. But at the start, Nomura had a slow getaway and fell to third as Sano took the lead and Frederick went up to second.

Behind them, Nomura attempted to defend third from Esteban Masson. The pair almost came to blows on lap 10 while braking for Turn 1 as Nomura pushed Masson to the edge of the track while alongside him. Seven laps later, Yasuhiro Shimizu overtook Dragon at the exact same spot to take the lead in the Masters’ class.

Having built up an insurmountable gap out front, Sano took his fourth win of the season by a crushing 13.320 seconds over Frederick and Masson, who was promoted to third after Nomura received a five-second penalty and dropped to eighth.

Having overtaken Dragon for the master class lead on lap 17 at Turn 1, Yasuhiro Shimizu triumphed in the category. Shimizu finished ahead off Nobuhiro Imada and Dragon, who originally finished second but received a 10-second penalty for a starting procedure violation.

The second-best laps from free practice five were used to determine race two’s grid, so Frederick started on pole ahead of Rikuto Kobayashi. As the American started well and gapped the field, David went off at the first corner after hitting the rear of Masson’s car.

Though the fog worsened, the race ran to its full length of 14 laps. Frederick took his first victory of the season, breaking Sano’s streak of four consecutive wins. The TOM’S driver jumped from fifth to second at the start and finished there, leading home a three-car train composed of teammates Furutani and Kobayashi.

Nomura originally finished fifth on track, ahead of Masson, but the Honda junior received a five-second penalty for a starting procedure violation, which dropped him to seventh behind Yusuke Mitsui. David recovered from his first-corner off to 10th, one place ahead of master class winner Imada.

Delightworks Racing’s Yugo Iwasawa finished 10th and 14th in the two races in a one-off outing in place of Souta Arao, for whom the team has yet to announce a full-time replacement.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1 (Free Practice 5)	Yuto Nomura, 1:37.930	Yuki Sano, +0.362s	Kaylen Frederick, +0.428s
Qualifying 2 (FP5’s second-best laps)	Kaylen Frederick, 1:38.373	Rikuto Kobayashi, +0.146s	Yuto Nomura, +0.154s
Race 1 (21 laps)	Yuki Sano, 35:33.037	Kaylen Frederick, +13.320s	Esteban Masson, +15.872s
Race 2 (14 laps)	Kaylen Frederick, 23:29.709	Yuki Sano, +8.862s	Yuga Furutani, +9.506s
Race 3	Postponed to a later date

Standings	Drivers	Teams	Masters
P1	Yuki Sano, 49	TOM’S, 47	Yasuhiro Shimizu, 47
P2	Kaylen Frederick, 24	B-Max Racing Team, 38	“Dragon”, 26
P3	Yuto Nomura, 21	Delightworks Racing, 4	Nobuhiro Imada, 17
P4	Rikuto Kobayashi, 14	LM Corsa, 1
P5	Yuga Furutani, 11	JMS Racing Team, 0
P6	Zachary David, 8	GNSY Racing, 0
P7	Esteban Masson, 7
P8	Yusuke Mitsui, 4
P9	Kazuhisa Urabe, 3
P10	Reimei Ito, 1

Report by Marco Albertini

Read the previous round’s report here.

Chinese F4: Dai takes maiden wins as Zhang maintains points lead

One Motorsports’ Dai Yuhao took his first win of the season at Shanghai as he and points leader Zhang Shimo mirrored one another’s results by scoring the same number of poles, fastest laps, wins, second places and third places over the four-race weekend.

ACM Geeke’s Zhang qualified on pole for race one, but he lost the lead to Chen Sicong at the start as a four-car pileup in Turn 3 neutralised the race. Despite holding the lead at the restart, Chen was overtaken by Dai in the final stages of the race. The One Motorsports driver went from third to first in the last 10 minutes of the race, taking his maiden series win ahead of Chen and Zhang. Wang Yi won in the masters class.

Xu Jing Jie started first for race two, but Cheng Meng overtook him at the start as Xu fell to third by the end of the first lap. Having tried to make the move on lap two but run wide at the Turn 14 hairpin, Zhang overtook Xu around the outside of Turn 1 on lap three and passed Wang at Turn 14 to move up into second place. Andrei Dubynin went from sixth to fourth on the same lap, then stole third place from Wang on lap four.

Following a late safety car for Mi Qi’s spin, Zhang overtook Cheng at Turn 1 at the restart with six minutes to go and held on for his fourth win of the season. Following him home were Dai and Dubynin, who took his first podium in Chinese F4.

Race one winner Dai qualified on pole for race three and stayed there at the start, keeping Zhang at bay on the first lap and pulling away once the second lap began. Meanwhile, Dubynin, who started sixth and moved up to fifth on lap one, overtook both Kimi Chan and Chen to move into third just two laps later.

In a race without safety cars, Dai beat Zhang by 1.465 seconds to take his second win of the season as Dubynin rounded out the podium. Wang took his seventh consecutive win in the masters’ class.

Xu was to start on pole for the final race, but he pitted at the end of the formation lap, handing Wang first place and the lead of the race. A collision between Andy Law and Huang Chujian at Turn 2 took both drivers out of the race and brought out the safety car at the end of the lap.

When the race resumed with 14 minutes left, Zhang immediately took the lead from Wang around the outside of Turn 1. Two laps later, Dai overtook Wang, who fell to fifth as time ran out but still clinched his eighth class win.

At the front, Zhang picked up his fifth win of the season ahead of Chan, who took his third podium of the season, and Dai, who left Shanghai second in points with a 32-point deficit to Zhang.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying 1	Zhang Shimo, 2:05.406	Chen Sicong, +0.348s	Dai Yuhao, +0.402s
Qualifying 2	Dai Yuhao, 2:05.312	Zhang Shimo, +0.425s	Chen Sicong, +0.566s
Race 1 (12 laps)	Dai Yuhao, 33:45.473	Chen Sicong, +1.160s	Zhang Shimo, +2.719s
Race 2 (13 laps)	Zhang Shimo, 29:05.340	Dai Yuhao, +0.635s	Andrei Dubynin, +2.666s
Race 3 (16 laps)	Dai Yuhao, 33:35.352	Zhang Shimo, +1.465s	Andrei Dubynin, +10.995s
Race 4 (12 laps)	Zhang Shimo, 28:08.585	Chan Yu Tsai, +8.707s	Dai Yuhao, +14.436s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Zhang Shimo, 158	ACM Geeke Racing, 164
P2	Dai Yuhao, 126	Champ Motorsport, 154
P3	Kimi Chan, 105	Black Blade Racing, 138
P4	Chen Sicong, 78	One Motorsports, 132
P5	Andrei Dubynin, 66	Venom Motorsport, 79
P6	Ryan Liu, 52	Apollo RFN Racing Team by Blackjack, 66
P7	Wang Yi, 49	Team KRC, 40
P8	Wang Yuzhe, 44	Black Blade GP, 27
P9	Ethan Ho, 40	GYT Racing, 4
P10	Cheng Meng, 27	Apollo RFN Racing Team by ART, 3

Report by Marco Albertini

Read the previous round’s report here.

FR Americas: Sherlock dominates and takes points lead with clean sweep

Titus Sherlock may have left NOLA missing some of the strong results expected of him, but he did exactly the opposite this weekend in Road America by winning all three races and taking the championship lead by 19 points.

Sherlock already showed strong pace in the optional test sessions, topping the second and finishing third in the first.

On Friday, however, things went differently. In the only qualifying session of the three Parella series to have taken place, Jett Bowling secured pole, followed by Sherlock in second and Nicolas Stati in third as the highest-placed rookie. But Bowling had caused the session to be suspended when he stopped at Turn 9, which cost him his fastest lap and consequently promoted Sherlock to pole position.

Despite the challenging weather conditions, race one went smoothly for Sherlock. The American had a great start and defended his position fromNicolas Stati, Ambiado and Bruno Ribeiro behind. On the first lap, Alex Benavitz went wide at Turn 5 and got stuck, leading to a safety car deployment.

Worsening visibility and intensifying rain partway through prompted race control to declare a wet race, forcing all drivers to pit to change tyres. The race restarted following a 10-minute pause, and Sherlock once again defended his position and held the lead until the finish. Ribeiro and Connor Roberts completed the podium for a race that awarded half points.

Race two was less straightforward for Sherlock. Ribeiro made a strong start from the front row and overtook Sherlock around the outside of Turn 1, but Sherlock quickly regained the lead with the same move on lap two. A safety car was then deployed on lap four after Lincoln Day spun into the gravel in Turn 14.

Sherlock held his position at the restart, while Ribeiro and Ambiado, who had climbed from eighth on the grid, went side by side in the fight for second. A heavy crash at Turn 10 for Kevin Janzen triggered another safety car period on lap nine. The race was then halted on the next lap, and Sherlock led Ribeiro once again as Ambiado finished third.

Bowling started on pole for race three and kept the position at the start, but already on lap one, the yellow flag came out following contact between James Lawley and Janzen, who parked up in the grass with a broken suspension.

Bowling ran wide at Turn 14 on the restart, handing the lead to Sherlock, who quickly pulled away. Bowling’s slower car created a bottleneck behind as Ribeiro and Stati battled side by side for third into Turn 1, with Stati losing out and conceding a place to Ambiado.

Another yellow flag came shortly after, and Ribeiro and Ambiado ran wide at Turn 8 during the restart lap as Sherlock pulled away. With the race ending under caution following a collision between Day and Barrett Wolfe, Sherlock took the win once again followed by Bowling and Golan Ambiado finished two laps down after pitting and did not score.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying	Titus Sherlock, 2:02.913	Jett Bowling, +0.139s	Nicolas Stati, +0.364s
Race 1 (5 laps)	Titus Sherlock, 25:56.205	Bruno Ribeiro, +2.306s	Connor Roberts, +3.786s
Race 2 (10 laps)	Titus Sherlock, 25:08.377	Bruno Ribeiro, +1.036s	Nicolas Ambiado, +1.666s
Race 3 (11 laps)	Titus Sherlock, 28:57.513	Jett Bowling, +1.082s	Brady Golan, +1.924s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Titus Sherlock, 87	Kiwi Motorsport, 166
P2	Nicolas Ambiado, 68	Crosslink Motorsports, 118.5
P3	Bruno Ribeiro, 65	Atlantic Racing Team, 78
P4	Brady Golan, 62	Toney Driver Development, 73
P5	Jett Bowling, 48	Jensen, 6
P6	Daniel Quimby, 40	Momentum Motorsports, 3
P7	Nicolas Stati, 37
P8	Connor Roberts, 23.5
P9	Barrett Wolfe, 20.5
P10	Alex Benavitz, 17

Report by Laura Anequini

Read the previous round’s report here.

F4 US: Hauanio survives chaos to win twice at Road America

F4 US brought chaos to Road America as Kekai Hauanio left with an 18.5-point lead.

Alex Popow topped every session Thursday and Friday, but he didn’t earn pole on track. Qualifying was cancelled because of lightning, so the championship standings determined the grid for race one.

Starting third, Hauanio had a great start and pulled alongside polesitter Popow on the first lap, securing the position around the outside of Turn 1 on lap two. Popow reclaimed the position down the back straight right afterwards, and both drivers fought for the lead for the next 10 minutes. Hauanio and Demitri Nolan finally got past on the fifth lap, and Nolan passed Hauanio for first just before Popow spun at Turn 8 with 17 minutes left. Moments later, a safety car was deployed for marshals to retrieve Luke Powers’ stopped car.

Nolan and Hauanio duelled on the restart, swapping places three times in the first half of the lap. After Hauanio prevailed, Nolan and Cooper Shipman debated second, but they collided at Turn 13 with two laps remaining, leaving Nolan’s car stranded and triggering the race-ending caution.

Hauanio led Clemente Huerta home as Popow recovered to third after his spin, but the Venezuelan received a five-second post-race penalty for failing to respect the yellow flag and dropped behind Caleb Campbell and Ty Arbogast.

In race two, Huerta started from pole but spun on the formation lap. He retook his starting position before the green flag, but this move violated start procedures and earned him a drive-through penalty. Shipman grabbed the lead on lap two but lost it to Campbell at Turn 6 on lap three. Popow then went through into second and prevailed in the three-way battle later that lap.

Popow broke free of the slipstream and opened a six-second gap over Shipman, but his car slowed with six minutes remaining and stopped with mechanical issues. That gifted Campbell, Shipman and Hauanio one place each after they had spent much of the race locked in battle.

Race three was the most chaotic of all, with only four cars taking the chequered flag. Popow again started first but plummeted through the field as Hauanio took the lead into Turn 1. Campbell then attempted a move at Turn 3 just before Shipman passed both at Turn 5.

Popow stopped on track later that lap with another mechanical failure, triggering a caution to recover his car and clear the fluid it deposited. 

At the restart, Campbell began pulling away before Hauanio reclaimed the lead at Turn 6. Campbell then faced pressure from Huerta, who ran alongside him through Turn 5 the next lap. The Colombian, however, hit a bump on exit and collided with Campbell, taking both drivers out.

The safety car came out and stayed out until the final lap, which Hauanio and Nolan spent disputing first. Hauanio secured his third win of the season by just 0.026s as Arbogast defeated Shipman by 0.056s. Half points were awarded for race three.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying (set by points)	Alex Popow Jr., 65	Cooper Shipman, 54	Kekai Hauanio, 52
Race 1 (11 laps)	Kekai Hauanio, 28:00.687	Clemente Huerta, +0.201s	Caleb Campbell, +0.842s
Race 2 (12 laps)	Caleb Campbell, 28:25.758	Cooper Shipman, +0.412s	Kekai Hauanio, +0.987s
Race 3 (9 laps)	Kekai Hauanio, 33:45.781	Demitri Nolan, +0.026s	Ty Arbogast, +0.504s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Kekai Hauanio, 104.5	Kiwi Motorsport, 151
P2	Cooper Shipman, 86	Crosslink Motorsports, 149.5
P3	Alex Popow, 81	MLT Motorsports, 81
P4	Clemente Huerta, 65	LC Racing Academy, 64
P5	Caleb Campbell, 64	RASE Motorsports, 53.5
P6	Ty Arbogast, 53.5	Scuderia Buell, 14
P7	Demitri Nolan, 45	Toney Driver Development, 0
P8	Conor Grant, 14
P9	Luke Powers, 0
P10

Report by Laura Anequini

Read the previous round’s report here.

Ligier Junior Formula Championship: Szuch wins twice post-race as Cará takes maiden victory

Gaston Irazú’s trio of second-place finishes ensured he left Road America with a 26-point championship lead, while Drew Szuch moved up to second overall with two more wins despite a major crash in race two.

Szuch led the way in both optional tests on Thursday, while Daniel Cará set the fastest time in Friday’s practice session.

As in F4 US, qualifying was cancelled because of lightning and the race one grid set by the championship standings. Therefore, Irazú, who dominated the previous round at NOLA, took pole, followed by Cará and Harbir Dass.

Irazú, however, got a poor start , and Cará challenged him on the opening lap. But at Turn 12, they made contact that dropped Irazú to seventh just before twins Roman and Cash Felber collided while fighting over thirdCará and Dass were thus left to battle up front on a damp track.

Cará showed strong pace as Dass fell back to fifth, but a safety car, deployed after Luca Day hit the wall on lap five, bunched the grid up again.

When the race restarted, Cará kept his lead over Szuch and Irazú. He ultimately crossed the line first but received a post-race penalty for spinning Irazú. With that, the win went to Szuch, who held off Irazú, Dass and Beckham Jacir at the line in a spectacular photo finish.

Szuch and Jacir started race two from the front row, but Jacir stalled at the start, triggering a safety car deployment as his car was towed away.

At the restart on lap three, Irazú overtook Szuch for first and Cará moved into second. Szuch went off track twice that lap and dropped to eighth, while on the next lap, Irazú locked up into Turn 1 and handedCará the lead of the race.

Another safety car deployment with 12 minutes remaining for Cash Felber’s beached car led to a late restart with just over two minutes remaining. Max Mokarem spun Szuch into the pit wall to reinstate yellow-flag conditions almost immediately. Cará thus secure his first single-seater victory, though he and the other top-10 finishers only claimed half points.

Polesitter Cará and Dass had great starts in race three, while Irazú, who started sixth, made up several places in lap one to join Cará, Dass and Szuch in the battle for the lead. Irazú got past Dass on lap two into Turn 1 before capitalising on an error from Cará to nab first at Turn 8 on lap three.

He held first for three laps, but after being passed by Cará and Szuch – who was racing in a repaired car – Irazú went wide at Turn 12 with 12 minutes remaining and dropped to fourth. Cará then spun from first at Turn 1 minutes later, handing the recovering Irazú the lead again and Szuch and Jacir the remaining podium spots.

Although Irazú crossed the line first, he received a five-second time penalty for forcing Szuch off the track during their fight for the lead, dropping behind the Berg Racing driver.

Results	P1	P2	P3
Qualifying(Set by points)	Gaston Irazú, 68	Daniel Cará, 45	Harbir Dass, 43
Race 1 (10 laps)	Drew Szuch, 29:35.785	Gaston Irazú, +0.030s	Harbir Dass, +0.101s
Race 2 (9 laps)	Daniel Cará, 30:56.338	Gaston Irazú, +1.183s	Harbir Dass, +1.748s
Race 3 (12 laps)	Drew Szuch, 30:29.797	Gaston Irazú, +3.982s	Beckham Jacir, +4.291s

Standings	Drivers	Teams
P1	Gaston Irazú, 113	Champagne Racing, 159
P2	Drew Szuch, 87	Berg Racing, 158.5
P3	Daniel Cará, 77.5	Cará Origin Motorsport, 77.5
P4	Harbir Dass, 71.5	Momentum Motorsports, 36
P5	Cash Felber, 40.5	Scuderia Buell, 36
P6	Max Mokarem, 36	LC Racing Academy, 29
P7	Augusto Paschetta, 36	Ava Hanssen Racing, 27
P8	Ava Hanssen, 27	Jensen, 11
P9	Beckham Jacir, 27	Crosslink Motorsports, 5
P10	Roman Felber, 16

Report by Laura Anequini

Read the previous round’s report here.

Header photo credit: Gavin Baker