After a long winter break, it was back to Yas Marina Circuit for Round 4 of the Gulf Radical Cup.

With the usual two days of testing, series leader Harry Hannam topped the timing sheets for most of the sessions. Alex Novichkov missed the first day of testing, to then have engine issues for most of Friday, but got out for the last session of the day, and posted the fastest time, with Daremas in 2nd just 0.4s behind.

Saturday would see Sprint Race Qualifying taking place in the morning. All cars rolled out with the objective of setting two of the fastest laps they can, each to set the grid starting position for both Sprint Races.

As the session developed, a fair few drivers were losing times due to track limit infringements, meaning time was of the essence to get extra laps in, but at 8 minutes to go, the red flag had come out. Car 44 of Volobuiev had stopped at Turn 5, and needed recovering. When the session re-started, drivers essentially had an out lap and two flying laps to post the best they could. Hannam came out on top with a new qualifying record of 1.56.357, second to Peri Daremas putting in a PB of 1.57.641, with Novichkov third on a 1.57.744.

Sprint Race 1 started as expected, Hannam made a great start with Daremas up behind him, as they went up the hill of turn 2 and 3. Daremas was close, looked down the inside into Turn 5, but to no avail. Hannam pulled a gap in the following laps and held that right to the end.

Meanwhile, Novichkov and Daremas were chasing one another all the way to the end. With Daremas defending his third place by 1.5 seconds at the end. Amir Feyzulin was at the head of the next pack, taking a well-earned fourth.

SPR 1 - 1st Hannam, 2nd Daremas & 3rd Novichkov (Open Class)

SPR 1 - 1st Daremas, 2nd Feyzulin & 3rd Khazzoum (National Class)

Sprint Race 2 got underway a few hours later, and again Hannam made a great start. But with drama behind. Novichkov, Feyzulin, and Khazzoum all went for the same gap, resulting in Feyzulin and Khazzoum spinning out of the race and bringing out the safety car. But with the cars stopping close to the track exit, racing got underway within a lap.

Hannam made a quick restart and was able to keep his lead to the finish line.

Making a comeback to the series was Ibby Hadeed. He was having a great race, running in third with constant pressure from Novichkov, but holding his nerve and crossing the line just 0.4 seconds between them.

SPR 2 - 1st Hannam, 2nd Daremas & 3rd Hadeed (Open Class)

SPR 2 - 1st Daremas, 2nd Hadeed & 3rd Shanly (National Class)

The following day was Enduro Qualifying, and the 45-minute enduro race. This time, just one lap was needed to set the grid for the main 45-minute race. The track was not as fast as in the previous day (owing to UAE F4 and Formula Regional laying down layers of Pirelli rubber earlier in the day), but Hannam still stuck a pole time of 1.57.291, ahead of Novichkov on a 1.58.353, closely followed by Daremas on a 1.58.372. But in a cruel turn; during a brief red flag in qualifying, the crew of Novichkov were caught working on his car while in the pit lane, this is against red flag rules, and he was given a three-place grid penalty, allowing Daremas to line up next to Hannam at the start. In fact, Novichkov was not alone as three other cars also made the same mistake. Meaning the enduro race would have a slightly muddled starting grid.

As the race got underway again, Hannam took the lead from Daremas, with Novichkov third. But for this race, there was of course the mandatory pit stop, with stationary time added for the top 5 finishers from the Enduro race at Round 2. That meant 20 seconds added to the standard 45 for Hannam, and 15 added for Daremas. While Novichkov DNF in Round 2, this meant he only had the standard 45 seconds. Was this his best chance to get ahead of Hannam and Daremas this weekend?

As the pitstop window opened, cars started to stream in. Novichkov was in first, with Hannam followed by Daremas. And as expected, once the dust had settled, Novichkov was leading, from Hannam, Hadeed (also without a pit penalty) and Daremas.

But with good pace, Hannam started to reel in Novichkov, as they went side by side into turn 6. Novichkov out braked himself and went straight on. So much so that the race director thought he gained an advantage, so a 5-second penalty was added. Nonetheless, it took a couple more laps for Hannam to catch back up and make his pass out of turn 5. In the meantime, Daremas and Hadeed were chasing hard, but disaster struck for Hadeed, and he appeared to peel into the pits with a misfiring engine. He jumped out of the car, ending his race!

It looked like it was all set at that point, but not quite. Out of nowhere, a message from Race Control flashed up on the screen - “16 Second Penalty for car 69 - short pitstop”. This meant that Daremas had somehow left his pit box too early, gaining him a time penalty. So he had to push hard to get a 16-second gap between him and the car behind him, Chachava. This he was able to do, keeping his third position!

So Hannam extends his lead in the series, but the fight for second between Novichkov, Feyzulin and Daremas hots up!