Wednesday 24 / April / 2024
Muscat: Oman’s rising racing star Khalid Al Wahaibi claimed third place in Race 4 of the Formula 4 South East Asia Championship in Thailand on Saturday.
After settling for sixth place in Race 3, Khalid Al Wahaibi clinched third place in Race 4, finishing 10.643 seconds behind the winner New Zealand’s Faine Kahia (22:23.445) and second placed Danial Frost (+5.384 seconds) of Singapore.
According to information received here, following an eventful first day of action at Event 5 of the Formula 4 South East Asia (F4/SEA) Championship, the drivers were back in action in another bumper-packed schedule of racing on Saturday.
Kicking off the proceedings with the third race of the weekend, the honours belonged to Indonesia’s Presley Martono who shone in the early morning race with a resounding victory over Singapore’s Danial Frost and local hero Worawong Komarakul who finished third. The race also proved a happy hunting ground for Malaysia’s Eric Louis who finished a strong fourth.
The second race of the day and fourth of the weekend, belonged to New Zealand’s Faine Kahia claiming his second win of the weekend ahead of Frost and Khalid Al-Wahaibi. Local favourite Komarakul finished fourth with F4/SEA debutant Daniel Hibbitt of China with a strong fifth place finish.
Meanwhile, the accolades for Race 5 belonged to Martono with a second win of the day reversing his misfortunes in Race 4. Finishing behind him was the Kiwi Kahia who despite struggling with mechanical issues managed to bring his car home in second ahead of India’s Akash Gowda. The young Indian’s result also came on the back of difficulties in the earlier races. The Malaysian contingent also had a strong outing with Isyraf Danish also reversing his misfortunes from the previous race to finish in fourth ahead of compatriot Eric Louis.
However, it was in Race 4 that Khalid Al Wahaibi showed his true potential and achieved the desired results.
The action-packed race saw plenty of battles up and down the grid, as other drivers fought hard with each other for track positions. For the three drivers at the head of the pack, things quickly settled into a more comfortable pace with Kahia, Frost, Khalid Al Wahaibi and Komarakul comfortably far ahead from the rest by the mid-way point of the race.
That would not be the case for those behind them as battles continued to rage, particularly between Martono who had the difficult task of defending and unfortunately losing positions first against Hibbitt, then from fellow countryman, Keanon Santoso, Malaysian Eric Louis and Thai Kane Shepherd.
Towards the closing stages, there were several interesting duels including that between Hibbitt and Santoso, both battling for P5; and between Shepherd and Eric Louis for P7. Just when things had begun to settle for those running in midfield, a new drama began to unfold at the front, this time between Frost and Al Wahaibi.
The Omani had been quietly stalking the Singaporean closing in on him, enough that by the final lap, Al Wahaibi was close enough to challenge for P2. The Singaporean did manage to hold on, finishing behind Kahia who notched up a second win of the weekend.
Khalid Al Wahaibi later said: “To be honest, I was really happy about my start in Race 4 as I was able to gain quite a few of positions, moving up to P5 by the second lap, I think. I saw that Presley (Martono) had a problem, so I knew that I had the opportunity to overtake him for P3.
“After that, I just put my head down and tried to put together consistent laps and by the end managed to catch Danial (Frost). Unfortunately, I couldn’t challenge him, but overall, I am really happy with this result.”
The final day of the event on Sunday will see two more races scheduled, including a seventh race held in place of the race that was postponed from the second event at the Clark International Speedway in the Philippines last October.
