Held at the 4.554km Buriram United International Circuit in Thailand, the fifth event of the inaugural Formula 4 South East Asia Championship began today (6 January) with free practice and qualifying in the morning with two races in the afternoon. The morning session witnessed New Zealand’s Faine Kahia (NZL, Car #55) who edged the field during the practice, but it was Malaysia’s Isyraf Danish (MAS, Car #19) who stole the limelight in qualifying. The Malaysian youngster was on an impressive form being the only driver to clock a time under the 1:42 minute mark with the quickest time in the session en route to a pole position.
The first race would however belong to Singapore’s Danial Frost (SIN, Car #66) who took the honours in the morning’s Race 1, while it was Kahia who made an emphatic Comeback after being denied the win in Race 1 to emerge victorious in the late afternoon’s Race 2.
Saturday will see three more races contested with the final two scheduled for the weekend billed for Sunday morning.
Faine Kahia (NZL, Car #55), Winner Race 2, P2 Race 1: “I managed a really great start in Race 1. The mission was to make the most of my reaction time especially at the start and it went exactly as I had planned it and managed to stay in the lead. Isyraf tried to overtake me and we did come together, and after that I had a bit of vibration. Fortunately I managed to keep the pace consistent all the way to the end. Unfortunately, after the race I was called to the stewards and I was given a penalty for an infringement in the race. But that fired me up for the second race.
Starting from pole position in the second race, again I had a really good start and managed to lead from the lights. I was a bit worried about getting another penalty, as they are quite strict here, so forhalf of the race that was what was on my mind. But I had a really good pace and was consistent.”
Danial Frost (SIN, Car #66) P2 Race 2, Winner Race 1: “I am really quite happy with the pace I had in the race as Faine (Kahia) and I were able to pull out quite a comfortable lead to third. My focus was to maintain the consistency and only pushed as much as I needed to. I tried to catch Faine but I did make a few mistakes, which allowed him to pull away. But then after the post-race inquiry, I was given the win in the race. I was much happier as my pace was much better in Race 2 as we were on new tyres. I was able to maintain a similar pace to Faine, even though Khalid (Al-Wahaibi) managed to catch me and close in. But Faine was really consistent and quick, but I am happy.”
Presley Martono (INA, Car #32) P3 and Rookie Winner Race 1: “I had a really good start and managed to go up to P4 on lap 1. I also managed to catch the leaders as my pace was getting better and did move up into P3. I also had a really good fight with Akash (Gowda) and he did get ahead of me a few times, but in the end I was able to defend the position.”
Khalid Al-Wahaibi (OMN, Car #8) P3 and Rookie Winner Race 2: “It feels great to be on the podium and it feels really good to be back especially since my last podium was at Clark (Philippines), I did not have a good event in Sentul (Indonesia) and did not have the pace with some of the more experienced drivers at Sepang since it was my first time there in December. It feels good and coming here and getting used to the track. I had a good pace in Race 1 finishing in P4 and improved to P3 in Race 2.”