Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Sepang: Singapore's Danial Frost scored a convincing win in the sixth and final race of the Sepang round of the FIA certified Formula 4 South East Asia (F4/SEA) Championship.
However, Frost's win came at the expense of Australia's Jordan Love, who has set out to claim another victory for a clean sweep.
Meanwhile, Oman's Khalid Al Wahaibi finished eighth in the final race and finished out of the medal bracket.
Khalid finished behind India's Mohammed Nalwalla, who did well to finish seventh.
Love, had to settle for second, ahead of India’s Akash Gowda, who just edged out Kiwi Faine Kahia, who finished fourth.
Meanwhile, a fifth place finish by Indonesian rookie Presley Martono was enough for the youngster to also take the rookie win for the race.
Local hopeful Isyraf Danish finished sixth as the best-placed Malaysian finisher, ahead of India’s Mohamed Nalwalla.
With five race wins and one second place finish, Love also walked away from the weekend with the Fuji Xerox Star Driver award for the F4/SEA Event 4.
In second place overall was Frost with Martono in third overall for the weekend.
Despite the overnight torrential downpour, the sixth and final race of the weekend was declared dry enough by race officials for the drivers to run on slick tyres.
A strong start by Frost saw the youngster hold on to his lead from Gowda into the first corner. An even better start by Love from fifth on the grid saw the Aussie ace move up into third position by the end of the opening lap.
From that point it was a three-way fight for the lead between Frost, Gowda and Love. That quickly changed when Love took second away from Gowda, as the young Aussie began hunting down Frost. Though the Indian did not relent in his pursuit to regain the position, he too became embroiled in a scrap of his own to defend third place from a charging Kahia.
With Martono enjoying a quiet race in fifth, behind him tensions were also high with another interesting battle in mid-field between Oman’s Khalid Al Wahaibi, Malaysia’s Isyraf Danish and India’s Mohamed Nalwalla.
Back at the front, despite his best efforts, Love was not able to make a move on Frost who drove a superb race to claim the race victory, denying Love a clean sweep from the weekend. Finishing third was Gowda, ahead of Kahia and Martono in fourth and fifth, respectively. In the battle for sixth, it was the Malaysian Isyraf Danish who prevailed over Nalwalla.
The penultimate event in the inaugural season will take place at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand from January 6 to 8.
