- Joining regulars Tim Gerhards and Lenny Ried were Eloi Gonzalez, who did a great job for the team.
- The drivers failed to find the desired rhythm in the three races and two qualifying sessions, which kept them out of the points. The best result of the weekend was achieved by Gerhards, 12th in the first round.
- “It has been a very difficult weekend and we are not satisfied because we are not as close to the points as we would like. We have not been able to go fast and the incidents have ended up hampering our performance,” concludes David Simón, Team Manager of the team.
- “We will learn this lesson and it will undoubtedly make us stronger for the future. Now it is time to review the cars, analyse the data and draw the relevant conclusions for the meeting in Jerez,” says Jaime Serrano, CEO of Monlau Motul.
Motul Monlau Motul Technical School closed the fifth event of the Spanish F4 season at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in the Valencian Community with a result that fell short of expectations. On one of the most evenly matched circuits of the year, the team’s drivers, Tim Gerhards, Lenny Ried and Eloi González, temporary replacement for Rehan Hakim, did not find the desired rhythm in practice and were involved in various incidents during the races. Gerhards, 12th in the first qualifying round, achieved the best individual result of the entire weekend for Monlau Motul, who leaves Cheste with a lot of homework ahead of the next meeting, scheduled in Jerez at the beginning of October.
The good form shown in the previous meeting, held last July at Motorland Aragón, invited optimism for Cheste, but from the first free practice it was clear that the challenge would be difficult. On a track where two tenths marked the passage from the top 10 to the bottom of the classification, Gerhards, Ried and González had great difficulty in finding the rhythm on a lap that would bring them closer to the places that would give them the right to fight for the points.
Confirmation came at midday in the first qualifying session, which orders the grids for races 1 and 2 taking as a reference the two best laps of each driver. The final results left Tim Gerhards in 17th and 16th place, Ried in 25th and 36th, and González in 35th and 34th positions. It was time to face the competitions by coming back.
The opening round of the event, number 175 in the history of Spanish F4, ended up leaving the best result of the weekend. Tim Gerhards again had a good start and recovered until he saw the flag in 12th place, just two away from entering the points. Eloi González also managed to finish 26th, while Lenny Ried, who had started very well, was forced to retire due to an incident that was not his fault.
Sunday’s session began, as usual, with the second qualifying session, which again fell short of expectations for the Monlau Motul drivers. Gerhards had to settle for the 23rd best time, nine-tenths off pole position , ahead of Eloi González (34th), while Lenny Ried spun out of time, leaving him 35th on the grid.
The short race, scheduled for 25 minutes plus one lap, also did not bring the expected results to the Monlau Motul Technical School drivers, as a result of the difficulties of getting tangled up in a pack as close as the one in Spanish F4. Lenny Ried recovered 15 positions to cross the finish line in 21st place; Eloi González (30th) made four more progress and Tim Gerhards, due to some incidents, fell to 33rd place. The last meeting, again in a long format of 30 minutes plus one lap, maintained the previous trend, with Gerhards this time as the best of the team, in 18th place, ahead of Eloi González (30th) and Lenny Ried (32nd).
David Simón , team manager of Monlau Motul Technical School, analysed individually and collectively the performance of the team members in the fifth event of the year: “It has been a very difficult weekend, and we are not satisfied, because we have finished further away from the points than we would have liked. It has been difficult for us to go fast and the incidents have ended up hampering our performance. At a mechanical and engineering level, a great job has been done, and I want to congratulate all the staff. If we analyse the drivers individually, Tim Gerhards has done things well, but his good starts have not been rewarded due to different collisions and incidents that have undermined his morale. We had very high expectations for Lenny Ried, because we had just completed some very good private tests on this track. However, some small mistakes during the sessions have left him far from his natural positions. Finally, Eloi González has performed from less to more, with great confidence and consistency and without taking unnecessary risks to help the team. He has ridden at the back of the pack, battling more experienced drivers who have been in Spanish F4 all season. I am sure that this experience will be of great help to him in the immediate future.”
Jaime Serrano , CEO of Monlau Motul, pointed out some key points for the future: “We leave Valencia with a lot of work pending. Now it is time to review the cars, analyse the data and draw the relevant conclusions that will allow us to reverse our luck in the next event. We will undoubtedly learn this lesson and come back stronger.”
Spanish F4 will return to activity on 5 and 6 October at the Ángel Nieto Circuit in Jerez, the scene of the penultimate meeting of the season.
