Red Bull Junior Rocco Coronel secured his third victory of the season during the fifth race weekend of the Formula 4 Spanish Championship at the Jérez de la Frontera circuit. Having secured pole position as the fastest in qualifying, the TeamNL talent from MP Motorsport already had the best starting position for Sunday’s race and made the most of it. « Together with the team, we’ve taken the necessary steps and it’s good to see that effort paying off, » said Coronel. He finished eighth in the two earlier races of the weekend.
In the week leading up to the event at the former Grand Prix circuit, there were two days of testing, during which Coronel consistently ranked among the frontrunners. « Actually, I was in the top three almost throughout. We tried something different with the set-up; it felt really good and gave me plenty of confidence, » said Coronel. He finished sixth in Friday’s official test, with the differences being minimal: the times of the top 21 drivers were within a second of one another. With the fifth and sixth fastest times in both free practice sessions – again with very small differences – Coronel showed that he was certainly among the contenders for strong results this weekend.
In Saturday’s qualifying session, which determined the starting grid positions for the weekend’s first two races, the Dutch driver admitted that he did not quite manage to get the most out of the tyres. This resulted in ninth place on the grid for the first race and eighth spot on the grid for race two. In the first race, Coronel managed to gain a place when a driver ahead of him went off the track, but a red-flag interruption and prolonged safety car periods following incidents elsewhere in the field made any further progress impossible. « A rather dull race, » Coronel said afterwards. In the second race, he started eighth and held that position right to the finish. « Nothing particularly special either, » he laughed.
For Sunday, meanwhile, Coronel and his team had opted for a different approach. « We’d come up with something completely different for the car – a totally different set-up – and it worked out really well, » he reported. In qualifying, he was able to make good use of the peak of the tyres and had a fast driver ahead of him, whom he could follow closely. That resulted in pole position, his first of the season in the Formula 4 Spanish Championship. He managed to capitalise on that ideal starting position in the race, although once again the race was not without its incidents. Coronel got off to a good start and held onto first place. The race was interrupted in the early stages following a crash involving another driver.
After the race resumed behind the safety car, Coronel managed to retain the lead at the restart and, despite further safety car interventions as the race progressed, he remained in front. The race also ended behind the safety car. « I’d hoped we’d be able to race for another lap, but unfortunately there wasn’t time for that. It’s a shame, but that doesn’t detract from the result – I’m absolutely delighted with this victory, » said Coronel. « We’ve made good progress this weekend, not only in terms of the set-up of the car but also for me as a driver – it just felt absolutely brilliant! » There are still two race weekends left on the calendar for the Formula 4 Spanish Championship: from 9 to 11 October at Motorland Aragón and from 6 to 8 November at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Standings : 1. Kasper Schormans ; 2. Noah Monteiro ; 3. Boris Lyzen ; 4. Rocco Coronel ; 5. Andrej Petrovic…