- Pablo Sarrazin, 9th in race 1, in which he added his first points of the season, and Ricardo Gracia, 9th in race 2 and 10th in race 3, complete a weekend of great progress for the team.
- The difficulty of overtaking and equality in training complicates the progression of the riders in an event marked by very high temperatures.
- “Pablo Sarrazin and Ricardo Gracia have consolidated themselves among the top ten. Fernando Barrichello is brave, his rhythm is good and he knows how to fight hand to hand. Lin Hodenius has grown a lot in Navarre, and will undoubtedly continue to evolve,” says Jaime Serrano, CEO of Monlau Motul Technical School.
Monlau Motul Technical School continues to progress in leaps and bounds before the competitive team of the Spanish F4, which last weekend lived its third annual meeting in the circuit of Navarre. The meeting served to see in the top 10 Pablo Sarrazin and Ricardo Gracia, authors of the best results in the event for the team with two ninth positions and a tenth place. Fernando Barrichello and Lin Hodenius, for their part, showed character and determination in all races, although they were weighed down by their lagging starting positions.
The circuit of Navarre usually provides equality and hardness in equal parts, aspects to which this season was added the celebration of the appointment in the middle of summer and with environmental temperatures that did not fall throughout the weekend of 30ºC. The set-up for the classification became, therefore, a decisive chapter for the final result in the three qualifying races, an aspect that both the team’s engineering and mechanical team, as well as the four drivers, They’ve been marked in red since the Motorland date.
On Saturday, the classification, which orders the grid of the first two races with the two best individual records, consolidated the sports evolution of Ricardo Gracia and Pablo Sarrazin. Gracia signed two better turns in the 1:40.6 orbit that catapulted him to the ninth and eighth starting positions, respectively, while Sarrazin chained two 14th positions (1:40.7 and 1:40.9). Barrichello and Hodenius had more problems to link two good laps, and had to settle for a 21st and 26th place, in the case of the Brazilian, and two P28 in the Dutch.
In the afternoon, the first of the races, scheduled to 30 minutes more a lap, confirmed the prominence of Pablo Sarrazin and Ricardo Gracia in the top 10 of the Spanish F4. Both of them got into the fight for eighth position, riding among the best drivers of the event without making mistakes. The entry of a security car coincided in time with a technical problem in the car of Gracia, which forced him to go through pits, leaving Sarrazin as the only candidate to the points. The Frenchman handled the resalida impeccably and kept up the checkered flag the ninth place, thereby inaugurating his points locker in the championship. Lin Hodenius crossed the finish in 20th place, Gracia was 23rd and Fernando Barrichello had to leave at the end of the race, although he was classified in 24th place.
The Sunday program started for the F4 late as a result of a repair operation on the track, which compact the schedule of the category, particularly the two races planned. Before competing, however, the mandatory qualifying round was held, which placed Ricardo Gracia in a magnificent 8th place (1:40.643), ahead of his comrades Pablo Sarrazin (14th), Fernando Barrichello (24th) and Lin Hodenius (28th).
The first round of the day, scheduled for 25 minutes plus a lap, kept the tone of the previous day, with Gracia fighting the entire race in the sixth-place group and with more pace than some of his opponents, but with many difficulties to advance by the very nature of the route and the general abuse by most rivals of the track limits, which relegated him to the 9th final place, reporting the first point of the weekend. Sarrazin also remained in this platoon, concluding 13th, a square above his starting position; Lin Hodenius, meanwhile, continued to accumulate experience to conclude 26th and Fernando Barrichello had to settle with e had to settle for 29th place after having to make a pit trip.
The third race, again lasting 30 minutes plus a lap, awarded the well-deserved prize to the insistence of Ricardo Gracia, who signed a great comeback from the 16th grid square. The Brazilian grew up in the group and, under intense heat (34ºC in the air and over 40ºC on the asphalt), recovered positions until crossing the checkered flag in tenth position, adding two more points to his loot of the weekend. This time the four riders of Monlau reached the finish, with Pablo Sarrazin 19th (affected by a touch when fighting for the top 10 in the initial turn), Fernando Barrichello 23º and Lin Hodenius 25º.
In his final balance sheet, Jaime Serrano, CEO of Monlau Motul Technical School, commented: “Pablo Sarrazin and Ricardo Gracia have consolidated among the top ten, which is very positive, since they perceive a great evolution in sports. We know we’re a little short of the next step, but we’re getting closer. Fernando Barrichello is brave, his pace is good and he knows how to fight hand-to-hand, but rolling from backward positions usually generates touches and incidents. For his part, Lin Hodenius has grown a lot in Navarre, and will undoubtedly continue to evolve in the rest of the season. We are very pleased with your progress”.
David Simon, team manager of Monlau Motul Technical School, added: “Every race we do serves us to evolve a little more. We continue to work determined to grow in the top 10”.
The F4 now begins its summer break before facing a frenetic final straight to the season, which will start on the circuit of Jerez the next 22, 23 and 24 September.
