René Lammers claimed his first Spanish F4 race victory of the season in a dramatic second F4 Spanish Championship race at Circuito de Navarra.
Starting from third on the grid, the Dutchman, who has crossed the line as the race winner on several occasions already this year, only to lose the wins due to post-race penalties, made immediate progress by passing Griffin Core’s Jan Przyrowski off the line to settle into second place on the first lap behind pole sitter Thomas Strauven.
Strauven’s lead was just three tenths of a second after the first lap as Lammers set about making his move, which he did in the first sector on the second tour, shortly before the safety car was deployed after Lorenzo Campos’ car became stranded in the gravel.
Racing resumed at the end of lap five, and the lead trio of Lammers, Strauven and Przyrowski immediately established a lead over the chasing pack, headed by KCL MP Motorsport’s Reno Francot.
The top-three were covered by just over a second for the majority of the second half of the contest, with that only changing when Strauven’s rear wing main plane suddenly vacated his car at the start of the final lap.
That allowed Lammers, son of 1980s F1 racer Jan, to pull away and win by over three seconds, while Straven somehow kept teammate Przyrowski behind him despite their last lap battle, crossing the line side by side and separated by a tenth of a second.
Francot was fourth and two seconds further back, finishing ahead of Juan Cota (MP Motorsport) and Campos Racing’s Noah Monteiro, who was the lead rookie.
His teammate Vivek Kanthan took seventh and second in the rookie class, with Hudson Schwartz eighth for KCL MP Motorsport,
The top-10, which was fiercely contested throughout, was completed by Drivex’s Christopher El Feghali and TC Racing’s Alfino Spina.
“If they take this one away I really don’t care!” Lammers said afterwards. “I’ve won every single race in the past few weeks so I’m very happy with the job we’ve done again. I got a good start and a good dive on Strauven too to win once again, so I don’t think there’s anything they can give a penalty for now. I’m really happy to get this and the team gave me an awesome set up to get this, so I thank them.”
F4 Spanish Championship, Circuito de Navarra, Race two result:
1. René Lammers, MP Motorsport, 15 laps
2. Thomas Strauven, Griffin Core, +3.370s
3. Jan Przyrowski, Griffin Core, +3.445s
4. Reno Francot, KCL MP Motorsport, +5.551s
5. Juan Cota, MP Motorsport, +7.149s
6. Noah Monteiro, Campos Racing, +7.624s
7. Vivek Kanthan, Campos Racing, +8.109s
8. Hudson Schwartz, KCL MP Motorsport, +11.709s
9. Christopher El Feghali, Drivex, +15.370s
10. Alfio Spina, TC Racing, +17.040s
Click here for full provisional results.