F4 in Spa-Francorchamps
The third round of the 2023 Italian Formula 4 Championship took place at the world famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. The 7 kilometre long circuit most likely known for its fast and dangerous corner combination of Eau Rouge and Raidillon in the first sector and the bus stop chicane at the final part of the circuit.
The race weekend began with the first free practice session on Friday morning and after a very successful debut for PHM Racing in the ACCR F4 Series the weekend before at the RedBull Ring with two wins for James Egozi and a second place for Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, PHM Racing wanted to continue this positive trend. During the first session, the drivers get used to the circuit and try to work out the optimum setup for their driving style together with their engineers. They continue with that work in the second practice session on Friday afternoon. In the end Valentin Kluss was the highest placed PHM Racing driver but only in position 13. There was a lot of work ahead for the drivers and engineers before qualifying on Saturday morning.
In Qualifying 2, all our drivers managed to close the gap to the front runners compared to Qualifying 1. They got everything out of the package available to them. James Egozi managed to qualify in Position 10 for race 2 and 3. Valentin Kluss and Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi both start outside the points positions but they will definitely have a shot for points with their experience and race craft abilities.
The start of race 1 went well for all PHM Racing drivers, as they all made up positions at the opening lap of the race. Valentin Kluss especially overtook 4 opponents during the first lap. But then on the third lap of the race right after the exit of Eau Rouge and Raidillion Victoria Blokhina had a scary incident with Guido Luchetti. There was contact going onto the Kemmel straight and unfortunately Victoria Blokhina rolled over several times, but luckily landed with her wheels to the ground at the end. She was able to get out of the car on her own and luckily did not suffer any serious injuries. After a red flag the race got underway again but was interrupted by a safety car again shortly after. Valentin was still running in 11th position and tried everything to get in the points but suffered from understeer which did not help him to get in the points. With another red flag in the end they only had 5 racing laps.
The second race on Sunday morning was interrupted with multiple Safety Cars at the beginning of the race. But still Valentin and Nandhavud made up a few positions already. After the bad understeer in the first race, Valentin Kluss and his engineer decided to try a new setup for the second race. It was important to get some more racing laps under the belt to get a feeling for the new setup. But with about 10 minutes of racing left the race has been red flagged after a serious accident after Eau Rouge and Raidillon involving 6 cars. Valentin Kluss could just avoid the crash of two Van Amersfoort Racing cars. Domingues got hit by his teammate and crashed into the wall but unfortunately was thrown back onto the track. James Egozi wasn’t so lucky. He tried to avoid the car but had no other chance than crashing into another car. The same happened to Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi. He was a bit further back in the pack. The cars in front of him blocked his view of the stranded car in the middle of the road and he could avoid him in time and made a heavy contact with him. After a check in the medical center they brought him to the hospital for further checks, but fortunately there were no injuries which meant he can take part in the final race of the weekend in the afternoon. All drivers involved in the crash are fine, but the race was not resumed. Even though there was not much racing in the race Valentin Kluss felt much more comfortable with his new setup and they stuck with that for the last race.
Our mechanics did an incredible job to repair both cars and make them ready to race again with just a few hours between the two races. Also in the final race the drivers did not get much running. First because of a Safety Car period, but then with 10 minutes to go the race direction decided that this is the final lap when the drivers already were in the first sector of the track. James Egozi finished the race in 9th position and took home two points for the team. Valentin Kluss started in 19th position and finished in 10th. Incredible drive from him to get into the points position in only so few laps. Nandhavud finished just outside the points but just like Valentin he came from the far back of the field. With the regular time of the race he could have scored points too.
Overall, it was a pretty unfortunate weekend for PHM Racing with a lot of damage that was not the fault of our drivers themselves. The round of the weekend we scored some points in the final race which gives us a little smile after the unfortunate weekend. We will bounce back from that in three weeks time for the fourth round of the Italian F4 Championship in Monza.
