SAWER BLITZES BURIRAM AS F4SEA STORMS THAILAND

The F4 South East Asia Championship continues to play out as one-way traffic for Vietnam’s Alex Sawer who claimed another trio of victories on the Chang International Circuit at Buriram, which sets him up for an unprecedented opportunity to win every single race in the campaign. The rookies race for the crown is far closer however as home favourite Ayrton Asdathorn stormed to two rookie class wins on home soil and it could set the man from Bangkok a chance to go for glory at the Bangsaen Grand Prix in July.

From pole position there were no doubts for Sawer as he claimed an early lead and pulled clear as his Evans GP team-mate Seth Gilmore overtook Asdathorn at the start. It would be a disastrous start to the season for Ayrton’s team-mate Worapong Aiemwichan who had to start from the pitlane a lap after the field, whilst Wang Zhongwei joined from the pits too albeit on time. Thomas Yu Lee made an impressive start to move into P4 and might have been able to pursue the leading trio but for a suspected issue for Ben Nguyen who skated off the course and into the gravel trap which brought out the safety car.

On its return to pitlane, Sawer was able to control the pace easily from Gilmore and Asdathorn, whilst it was Inigo Anton who was making up for lost time after an earlier move on Yu Lee forced him to run wide and drop behind his fellow BlackArts member Rishon Rajeev. It took the Philippines star a couple of laps to get ahead of the Indian, and then a valiant effort to move into P4 was successfully completed when he surged ahead of Thomas Yu Lee. The final move of race one came from Wang who placed his Origine Motorsport car ahead of the Singaporean novice Joshua Berry just before the checkered flag.

A safety car start for Rishon Rajeev in pole position after a midday rain shower spiced up the early stages of race two. When the safety car retreated back to the pits, Anton made the first move into second ahead of Yu Lee who retaliated to no avail whilst Sawer was brave enough to draw level with Gilmore and squeeze beside Asdathorn to run three wide in the second corner. Sawer took Gilmore along for the ride as they moved ahead of Asdathorn, and just a corner later Sawer moved ahead of Yu Lee for P3. Spectacularly by the end of the lap, Sawer was also past Anton and into a phenomenal second place from P6 on the grid in just a single lap.

Aiemwichan was in trouble again - this time spinning off whilst trying to stay with the pack, but he rejoined before a safety car was required. Sawer meanwhile wasn’t distracted and grabbed the lead from Rajeev which he would never relinquish. Gilmore would try a similar level of bravery but around the outside of Anton he pirouetted around dropping initially to P7 before moving back ahead of Thomas Yu Lee and then Wang Zhongwei in quick succession. The battle then became for P2 as Sawer pulled away, but Rajeev, Anton, Asdathorn and Gilmore were now nose to tail trying to keep the wet tyres cool with the track drying fast.

Anton made the first move to pass his team-mate Rajeev as the Indian was clearly struggling. Asdathorn made a buoyant move into the final corner to pass him and Gilmore was able to follow in the wake of the Thai to move up into P4 into the first corner of the next lap. Asdathorn saw an opportunity to close up on Anton and made his move on the Filipino only for Anton to return the move just a corner later with confidence around the outside. A lap later Asdathorn moved into P2 again past Anton, but once more in the next bend Anton was able to retaliate and Gilmore moved ahead of the Thai in unison. Despite a few strong efforts to return to the podium, Asdathorn would have to settle for P4 behind Sawer, Anton and Gilmore.

Race 3 would also start behind the safety car due to wet conditions, but it certainly wouldn’t be more stressful for the polesitter Sawer who simply drove away from the opposition on the actual race start whilst Yu Lee moved into P3 early on but it would be just a few seconds before Anton and Gilmore moved ahead of him once more. By the end of the lap he would also drop behind Wang Zhongwei and the rest of the American’s race became about covering off Rishon Rajeev who had struggled to make an immediate impression.

With the track already dry and the cars on slick tyres the pace merely became faster and faster as the day progressed, Gilmore was resolute in pressuring Asdathorn but lap after lap the Australian tried and failed to coax the Thai into a big enough mistake to turn the tide. Thomas Yu Lee’s epic start caught up with him after he received a time penalty for overtaking before the control line on the safety car restart. The remainder of the race played out without drama and Sawer completed the hat-trick ahead of Asdathorn and Gilmore, whilst the battle between Rajeev and Yu Lee finally ended in the American’s failure but his time penalty meant he couldn’t enjoy the achievement as he slipped back behind the Indian in the final outcome.

With a maximum 180 points from 4 poles and 6 wins, Sawer is now 80 points clear of his teammate Seth Gilmore as the championship heads to the prolific Bangsaen Grand Prix on the first weekend of July, halfway between Bangkok and Pattaya City.