F4SEA - The Finn finishes on top Ahead of Oman and Malaysia 14.07.2019: Formula 4 SEA – fuelled by Petron – 14 July 2019 The fifth event in the 10 event 40 race 2019 Formula 4 south East Asia Championship came to a close here today with Elias Seppanen winning the final race and the weekend. He just beat out Shihab Al Habsi fo

Formula 4 SEA – fuelled by Petron – 14 July 2019 The fifth event in the 10 event 40 race 2019 Formula 4 south East Asia Championship came to a close here today with Elias Seppanen winning the final race and the weekend. He just beat out Shihab Al Habsi for the top spot, winning three races and dominating the event.



Alister Yoong rounded out the top 3. The Malaysian tied for second with Shihab, but the tie was broken by Shihab having the faster lap in the last race. Alister beat out Lucca for the position after the Irishman had an unfortunate weekend with everything going downhill after qualifying an impressive third amongst a competitive grid.



Muizz Musyaffa, another Malaysian, finished fifth. Just one point ahead of Yash Aradhya. Rookie drive Muhammad Ibrahim finished seventh ahead of Mira and Sneha, while Mira secured the leading lady trophy for the event.





The Finn leads Race 17 from the First


Elias Seppanen blasted off the line in the seventeenth race of the season! The Finn flew away with Yash Aradhya and Lucca Allen just behind him. The Irishman seemed to get a better start than the Indian as the raced through turn 1 and down into the opening lap. Allen was all over the back of Aradhya, but the local racing hero held him at bay. The battle though gave Elias the space he needed to get away from the pack and the Finn started to build a nice lead for himself.



Focused on the job at hand, Shihab al Habsi found a way past Muizz Musyaffa at turn one with Alister Yoong capitalizing on the same maneuver to try around the outside at the exit of the corner before diving up the inside at turn 2 and securing the fifth spot.



There would be constant battling and the top 6 were lapping within five tenths of each other, nose to tail until the end of the race. But there just wasn’t enough space to make a move and, perhaps wisely, no one was willing to try anything they weren’t one hundred percent sure of.


So, the positions would stay like that until the checkered flag, despite a few scary moments for Lucca Allen at the exit of turn 12, and the race finished with Elias Seppanen in first, Yash Aradhya in second and Lucca Allen in third.
Great driving all round and another fantastic session from the team.


1    58    Elias Seppanen (R)    0:21:39.537    -    1:38.747    Finland
2    17    Yash Aradhya    0:21:40.799    1.262    1:38.881    India
3    3    Lucca Allen    0:21:41.448    1.911    1:38.899    Ireland
4    34    Shihab Al Habsi    0:21:41.918    2.381    1:38.799    Oman
5    22    Alister Yoong    0:21:42.838    3.301    1:38.530    Malaysia
6    13    Muizz Musyaffa    0:21:43.198    3.661    1:38.638    Malaysia
7    33    Muhammad Ibrahim (R)    0:22:03.426    23.889    1:39.885    India
8    9    Sneha Sharma    0:22:41.083    1:01.546    1:42.954    India
9    36    Mira Erda    0:22:41.486    1:01.949    1:42.954    India
10    64    Ali Akabi (R)                   Jordan
11    5    Josh Smith                   Australia
12    18    Abdallah Beshara                   Bahrain
13    19    Amer Harris (R)                   Malaysia
14    77    Ananthorn Tangniannatchai (R)                   Thailand
15    10    Arya Singh                   India
16    4    Emil Skaras (R)                   Sweden
17    1    Folky Wongsechareon                   Thailand
18    26    Hadrian David (R)                   France
19    46    Lyubov Ozeretkovskaya                   Kazakhstan
20    8    Malthe Jakobsen                   Denmark
21    6    Ryo Komikado                   Japan
22    12    Shrien Naidoo (R)                   South Africa
23    20    Talal Beshara                   Bahrain





Young Malaysian Blows past to win Race 18


Sneha was on pole in the third race, alongside rookie Muhammad Ibrahim. But the star of the show was Elias who danced past into first by the third corner with Shihab hot on his heels just before the safety car was deployed to recover a beached car at turn three.


Elias restarted the race several laps later. Challenging the Omani to keep up with him, if he can! He gave it his all, but the battle to watch was between Lucca and Alister for fourth. The duo would tussle it out for several laps before Alister came out on top!



That would turn out to be important as, after Elias took the chequered flag for the second time this weekend, Yash was penalized 20 seconds for exceeding track limits and causing an incident. That put Alister in third and made things very interesting for the event championship.


Although the action was mostly on the timing boards, it was still a great session to experience and the team started to prepare for the final race of the event.



               
1    22    Alister Yoong    0:18:55.457    -    1:39.104    Malaysia
2    34    Shihab Al Habsi    0:18:56.457    1.000    1:39.137    Oman
3    17    Yash Aradhya    0:19:01.220    5.763    1:39.821    India
4    13    Muizz Musyaffa    0:19:01.831    6.374    1:39.603    Malaysia
5    58    Elias Seppanen (R)    0:19:04.624    9.167    1:39.407    Finland
6    3    Lucca Allen    0:19:06.268    10.811    1:40.401    Ireland
7    33    Muhammad Ibrahim (R)    0:19:06.543    11.086    1:39.925    India
8    9    Sneha Sharma    0:19:42.992    47.535    1:44.152    India
9    36    Mira Erda    0:09:46.851    7 Lp    1:44.584    India
10    64    Ali Akabi (R)                   Jordan
11    5    Josh Smith                   Australia
12    18    Abdallah Beshara                   Bahrain
13    19    Amer Harris (R)                   Malaysia
14    77    Ananthorn Tangniannatchai (R)                   Thailand
15    10    Arya Singh                   India
16    4    Emil Skaras (R)                   Sweden
17    1    Folky Wongsechareon                   Thailand
18    26    Hadrian David (R)                   France
19    46    Lyubov Ozeretkovskaya                   Kazakhstan
20    8    Malthe Jakobsen                   Denmark
21    6    Ryo Komikado                   Japan
22    12    Shrien Naidoo (R)                   South Africa
23    20    Talal Beshara                   Bahrain
 






Elias the star of the show in race 19


Sneha was on pole in the third race, alongside rookie Muhammad Ibrahim. But the star of the show was Elias who danced past into first by the third corner with Shihab hot on his heels just before the safety car was deployed to recover a beached car at turn three.


Elias restarted the race several laps later. Challenging the Omani to keep up with him, if he can! He gave it his all, but the battle to watch was between Lucca and Alister for fourth. The duo would tussle it out for several laps before Alister came out on top!


That would turn out to be important as, after Elias took the chequered flag for the second time this weekend, Yash was penalized 20 seconds for exceeding track limits and causing an incident. That put Alister in third and made things very interesting for the event championship.


Although the action was mostly on the timing boards, it was still a great session to experience and the team started to prepare for the final race of the event.

          
1    58    Elias Seppanen (R)    0:20:54.038    -    1:39.222    Finland
2    34    Shihab Al Habsi    0:20:54.899    0.861    1:39.477    Oman
3    22    Alister Yoong    0:20:59.539    5.501    1:39.625    Malaysia
4    3    Lucca Allen    0:21:03.463    9.425    1:40.340    Ireland
5    13    Muizz Musyaffa    0:21:03.754    9.716    1:40.129    Malaysia
6    33    Muhammad Ibrahim (R)    0:21:05.909    11.871    1:39.921    India
7    17    Yash Aradhya    (00:21:19.071    25.033    1:39.791    India
8    36    Mira Erda    0:21:36.377    42.339    1:44.224    India
9    9    Sneha Sharma    0:00:03.401    10 Lp.    -    India
10    64    Ali Akabi (R)                   Jordan
11    5    Josh Smith                   Australia
12    18    Abdallah Beshara                   Bahrain
13    19    Amer Harris (R)                   Malaysia
14    77    Ananthorn Tangniannatchai (R)                   Thailand
15    10    Arya Singh                   India
16    4    Emil Skaras (R)                   Sweden
17    1    Folky Wongsechareon                   Thailand
18    26    Hadrian David (R)                   France
19    46    Lyubov Ozeretkovskaya                   Kazakhstan
20    8    Malthe Jakobsen                   Denmark
21    6    Ryo Komikado                   Japan
22    12    Shrien Naidoo (R)                   South Africa
23    20    Talal Beshara                   Bahrain





Seppanen Victorious in Race 20 despite Pressure from Allen


The final race of the weekend saw Seppanen back on pole. The Finn set the fastest and second fastest times in qualifying, landing him the position on the front row alongside Allen.


From the start Allen had the pace and gave the rookie all he had. But Elias didn’t break under the pressure and kept his composure to lead from the first lap.



A safety car period towards the end of the race bunched everything back up and almost ruined the Finn’s day. But as it has been this weekend everyone was as close together as they could be, but nobody could find a safe way past. 



Making Elias, Lucca and Shihab at the chequered flag.

               
1    58    Elias Seppanen (R)    0:21:07.780    -    1:39.057    Finland
2    3    Lucca Allen    0:21:08.324    0.544    1:38.795    Ireland
3    34    Shihab Al Habsi    0:21:08.825    1.045    1:38.812    Oman
4    22    Alister Yoong    0:21:10.603    2.823    1:39.241    Malaysia
5    13    Muizz Musyaffa    0:21:11.195    3.415    1:39.366    Malaysia
6    33    Muhammad Ibrahim (R)    0:21:12.373    4.593    1:39.679    India
7    17    Yash Aradhya    0:21:28.453    20.673    1:39.560    India
8    36    Mira Erda    0:21:33.394    25.614    1:45.124    India
9    9    Sneha Sharma    0:03:39.655    8 Lp.    1:45.651    India
10    64    Ali Akabi (R)                   Jordan
11    5    Josh Smith                   Australia
12    18    Abdallah Beshara                   Bahrain
13    19    Amer Harris (R)                   Malaysia
14    77    Ananthorn Tangniannatchai (R)                   Thailand
15    10    Arya Singh                   India
16    4    Emil Skaras (R)                   Sweden
17    1    Folky Wongsechareon                   Thailand
18    26    Hadrian David (R)                   France
19    46    Lyubov Ozeretkovskaya                   Kazakhstan
20    8    Malthe Jakobsen                   Denmark
21    6    Ryo Komikado                   Japan
22    12    Shrien Naidoo (R)                   South Africa
23    20    Talal Beshara                   Bahrain
 


-Abdul Rahman, photos Aaaron Thompson