Thursday 18 / April / 2024
Muscat: Oman’s rising star Khalid Al Wahaibi settled for second place in the sixth and final race of the Formula 4 South East Asia (F4/SEA) Championship in Malaysia on Sunday.
According to information received here, the final race of the weekend, which was also the final race of the season, featured an intense eight-lap battle and had the added twist of having the top-half reversed.
That meant a pole position start for Oman’s Khalid Al Wahaibi ahead of India’s Akash Gowda and Singapore’s Danial Frost.
Proving to be the most intense race of the lot, the drama-filled race was won by Gowda (17:53.954) who managed to turn around what had been a difficult weekend for the young Indian ace. After taking the lead from Al Wahaibi on the opening lap, Gowda never looked back as he claimed the win.
Al Wahaibi (+7.152 seconds) finished in stellar second position after seeing off the challenge from other drivers in the early stages of the race.
A delighted Al Wahaibi said: “I started on pole position due to the reversed grid and although I had a good start, Akash (Gowda) had an even better start and was able to take the lead from me. From that point, my focus was on keeping my second position.”
“I did make a few mistakes, which did bring the guys behind me closer. But their fight also allowed me to pull away. It is a great way to end the weekend,” the Omani star added.
“I had a tough start to the weekend, but began to improve towards the end. Especially after a great weekend in Thailand, this was hard to take. But to end it on a positive note like this is a great way to close out the season.”
Claiming another third place finish was Malaysia’s Isyraf Danish (+7.973 seconds) who made it a great weekend with six podium finishes from the six races contested.
After a dramatic opening lap melee with all of the drivers jostling for position, it was Gowda who came out on top taking the lead of the race from Al Wahaibi. Behind the leading two drivers, there was plenty of action, including one involving New Zealand’s Faine Kahia who made a stunning start to jump from his P6 starting position to move up to P3. Unfortunately, the Kiwi was unable to keep the position for long as Indonesia’s Presley Martono took the position by the second lap.
With Gowda and Al Wahaibi comfortably away, the bulk of the action was concentrated on the fight for P3 between Martono and Isyraf Danish as well as Frost. By the fifth lap, that battle became a four-way fight that included Martono, Isyraf and Frost, as the field started to close in on Al Wahaibi.
But as the jostling continued between the Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean youngsters, Al Wahaibi was able to put his foot down and pull away to re-establish a comfortable gap to keep his second place.
The fight for third spot continued to intensify as the trio jostled each other with the position changing several times towards the closing stages of the race. A brilliantly timed overtake move on the penultimate lap by Isyraf from fifth position saw the youngster jump both Martono and Frost, one the Malaysian driver kept all the way to the chequered flag.
Earlier in the fifth and penultimate race of the season, Khalid Al Wahaibi finished in fifth place. The race was won by Martono while Danish and Frost finished second and third respectively. Gowda finished fourth in that race.
