Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: It was an unfortunate final day and race for Oman's Khalid Al Wahaibi as he suffered a crash and had to retire from the Formula 4 South East Asia (F4/SEA) Championship – certified by FIA at the Buriram United International Circuit on Sunday.
According to information received here, the day featured an early start for the young guns as they prepared for the final two races of the weekend.
Accolades for sixth race early on Sunday morning belonged to Indonesian Presley Martono, who notched up a hard-earned win ahead of New Zealand’s Faine Kahia and India’s Akash Gowda, the latter earning his second trip to the podium for the weekend.
Singapore’s Danial Frost finished fourth, edging out Thai driver, Worawong Komarakul. Khalid Al Wahaibi of Oman took the sixth post.
However, the Omani driver could not hold good in the seventh race.
With two race wins and three second place finishes, New Zealand’s Kahia was also crowned the Fuji Xerox Star Driver Award as the Event 5 overall champion. Frost came in overall second following his one race win and four podium finishes. Martono’s three wins was enough to secure him third overall for the event.
Meanwhile, the drivers’ starting positions for the seventh and final race of the weekend, which featured as the replacement race for the Clark event last October, had already been determined with the new additions to the championship occupying the remaining slots.
Starting from pole position was Oman’s Khalid Al Wahaibi, from Gowda and Martono in second and third positions.
Successfully managing the pressure of a front row start, it was Al Wahaibi who would hold on to the lead of the race, keeping a threatening Gowda at bay.
Behind the leader, a superb battle was beginning to play out between Martono and Kahia, both challenging Gowda for second spot.
However, that battle on the opening lap would not play in to the Kiwi’s hands when he went off wide after jostling for position. That dropped Kahia down the order, keeping him out of contention, for the time being.
With all the drama behind him, Al Wahaibi had the comfort of space as he began pulling away from the field. However, following a successful overtake move of Gowda and clear air ahead of him, it did not take long for Martono to begin hunting Al Wahaibi down. After putting the hammer down, the gap had closed to just over a second by the second lap.
Back up front, Al Wahaibi had the difficult task of defending against a quicker and threatening Martono. However by the fourth lap, the youngster unfortunately lost out in the battle for the lead as the Indonesian found a way through.
Though the Omani continued to fight to regain the lead, he also had another challenge on his hands as a field of five drivers began gaining on him, led by a charging Isyraf Danish.
By the mid-way point of the race, with six drivers all within striking distance of each other, there was bound to be drama.
After chasing Al Wahaibi down, a superb overtaking move saw Isyraf gain a position, leaving the Omani to battle it out with Gowda, Daniel Hibbitt and Eric Louis. Unfortunately, a collision between Al Wahaibi and Hibbitt ended any chance of a strong finish by either driver as both were forced to retire.
At the conclusion of the 11-lap race, it was Martono who claimed top honours ahead of Isyraf Danish after what was his strongest race to date. Claiming the third and final spot on the podium was Frost, ahead of Gowda and Kahia.
With the conclusion of Event 5 at the Buriram United International Circuit in Thailand, the F4/SEA will head south of the border two weeks from now for the final event of the season from 20 -22 January 2017 at Sepang.
