- The team’s starters, Lenny Ried, Tim Gerhards and Rehan Hakim showed good speed and made comebacks, but were unable to reach the points zone.
- “We have experienced another very competitive test. On Sunday we qualified in 20th position, but only seven tenths off pole, which shows that we can be in the fight,” comments David Simón, Team Manager of the team.
- “There has been a lot of intensity on the track, many incidents and safety cars that have prevented us from being further ahead. Despite this, the entire team has done an impressive job and we continue to advance in this hotly contested championship,” says Jaime Serrano, CEO of Monlau Motul.
Monlau Motul Technical School continues its evolution in Spanish Formula 4. The Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, located in Portimão, was the scene of the second round of the 2024 season, in which the team’s young drivers staged comebacks and, although they have not yet entered the points zone, they showed that They have the speed to do it.
After the start of the course in Jerez, where the extreme equality of the category was demonstrated, in Portimão everything indicated that there would once again be an exciting weekend, with fights and all the drivers in one fist. On Saturday morning the action began with the two free practice sessions, followed by qualifying, in which Tim Gerhards was the best placed on the team with a time of 1:44.920 that placed him 24th, Lenny Ried was 26th (1 :45.002), both less than a second behind the pole position , and Rehan Hakim 34th (1:45.5759), 1.6 seconds behind the first.
This complicated things for the three drivers, who started very late in the first race, held on the same Saturday afternoon. In it they showed a very good rhythm, which allowed them to make up some positions. Ried moved up to 23rd place and Hakim crossed the finish line 26th. However, Gerhards was not lucky and a touch left him out of the race.
In the second qualifying round, which took place on Sunday morning, Lenny Ried improved his time to place 20th (1:44.657 20), Tim Gerhards was 27th and Rehan Hakim obtained the same position as in the first qualifying (34th) with a time of 1:45.482. In the two remaining races, scheduled for 25 and 30 minutes plus one lap, respectively, the three Monlau drivers continued their progression. Ried rose to 18th place and Hakim to 23rd. Gerhards, for his part, continued his bad streak and various incidents on the track forced him to abandon both Sunday rounds. In the afternoon long race, Ried suffered the same fate as his teammate and had to retire, and Hakim took the checkered flag 28th.
In this way, Monlau Motul continues to focus on the development of its three rookie pilots and the Tatuus T-421. This test has served to add experience and kilometers, essential to tackle the next races.
At the end of the event, David Simón , Team Manager of Monlau Motul Technical School, valued the effort of the pilots: “We have experienced another test of maximum equality. On Sunday we qualified in 20th position, but only seven tenths off pole, which shows that we can be in the fight. The three drivers have made comebacks, but it is a shame that Tim was not able to finish any race due to incidents on the track. We deserved to be higher, but we need to improve the classification. “Lenny has advanced many positions and Rehan continues to learn.”
Jaime Serrano , CEO of Monlau Motul, highlighted the high level of the entire team: “The weekend has been hard, these are not the results we wanted, since we had good speed. There has been a lot of intensity on the track, many incidents and safety cars that have prevented us from being further ahead. Despite this, the entire team has done an impressive job and we continue to advance in this hotly contested championship. Now we are looking towards the next meeting at Paul Ricard.”
After the Portuguese event, the Barcelona team will return to the fray in the third round of the Spanish F4, which will be held from July 5 to 7 at the Paul Ricard circuit (France).
