28/06/2022
The Enhance PR & Marketing Team had the pleasure of attending the 2022 UIM F4 World Championships in Brindisi, Italy to cover the event on social media. A beautiful town, fantastic race location and a fantastic group of racers.
It was hard work and very hot but we had great fun doing it!
Hereβs the race report for the weekend
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Tuesday 28th June 2022
Race Report - World Championship Battle Begins in Brindisi
Competitors from six nations this weekend made the long journey to southern Italy for the opening round of the 2022 UIM F4 World Championships in Brindisi. With competitors from Estonia, Finland, Latvia Lithuania, Sweden and Italy all representing their countries with most travelling over 3 days to make the journey.
Race Day one saw fantastic conditions for the racers despite it being a little gusty at times. Finland's Tino Lehto (23) was first to show his speed taking the fastest lap time in Free Practice but with just 3 seconds separating the whole fleet we were in for some fierce battles and some fantastic racing.
With the fleet only consisting of 8 boats Q3 was dropped from the race programme and as they headed on to the water for Q1 the Fin continued his dominance getting a flying lap of 42.2 seconds on his first lap of the session, with Stefan Arand from Estonia following suit with a initial lap time of 42.8 seconds the bar was set and these were the top two times to beat.
But with all the racers trying their best in the blustery conditions they would all fall short and were forced to fight for the remaining four places in Q2.
Lithuania's Paulius Stainys was to retire from Qualifying with a problem with the engines ECU seeing him forced to settle for 8th on the grid and lots of work to do before the race to ensure the issue was resolved. Italy's Oleg Bocca also missing out on a place in Q2 by just 0.1 of a second. The Italian would take the 7th position on the grid.
Q2 saw Nils Slakteris from Latvia was the first racer to take to the course in Q2 setting the bench mark at 43.6 seconds. Next out was Swedens Mathilda Wiberg who got a flying start to her qualification campaign setting a blistering lap time of 41.9seconds on her first lap and leaving the rest of the fleet a lot of work to do to catch the female racer. With the fastest from Q1 going last Tino Lehto flew round the course for his first lap but couldnβt match Matildaβs lap time. Adjusting his lines and picking up speed he drove a fantastic lap shaving 0.2seconds off Mathildaβs time and secure the first pole position of the championship.
With just 2 seconds separating the whole fleet the race was on and would surely go down to the chequered flag. As they lined up Tino Lehto was on pole followed by Mathilda Wiberg, Estoniaβs Stefan Arand, Jarno Vilmunen and Roope Virtnanen both from Finland completed the top six line up.
As the sun began to set over Brindisi the race got underway as all 8 boats powered away from the pontoon first time as they headed towards the first turn Stefan Arand got a blistering start but right on his inside were Mathilda and Tino and the rest of the pack were hot on his wake to his outside. Stefan held his nerve threw his boat into the turn and took the lead.
Lehto pushed the Estonian every single turn of the 20 lap race trying to force his rival into an error. But Stefan drove a near perfect race and sailed home to take the first podium of the season, Lehto secured silver with Jarno Vilmunen battling his way past Mathilda Wiberg to secure the all important Bronze position points.
Race Day 2
As the second race day dawned proceedings began again, the drivers launched for free practice and those who were suffering from issues in the first race looked to put their problems behind them. Engine issues had hindered Mathilda so with a lot of hard work from her team she started the day with a different engine and hoped to better her 6th place position.
Lithuaniaβs Paulius Stainys also hoped he had put his engine issues behind as he searched for better qualifying results and improving his chances in the race.
Once more Arand and Lehto went head to head in free practice matching each others fastest lap times of 42.2seconds whilst Wiberg and Vilmunen tied on 42.4seconds with nothing separating the four boats.
Q1 saw a Tino Lehto take the fastest lap time followed by his two fellow countrymen Jarno Vilmunen and Roope Virtanen,with Stefan Arand, Mathilda Wiberg and Oleg Bocca completing the top six line up for the shoot out.
Q2 saw Italyβs driver Oleg Bocca forced to retire from the session due to a problem that saw him taking on water and fighting to fix the issue before the evenings race. So the first Driver to take their 2 lap shootout was Mathilda Wiberg setting a lap time of 42.5seconds on her first lap but the lady racer knew she would need be quicker on her second lap to secure pole position. Mathilda managed to shave 0.1 seconds of her lap time and the bar was set for the rest of the fleet to chase.
Stefan Arand was the next boat on the water but he only managed to match Mathildaβs time so would need to wait to see what the Finnish racers could do to find his starting place on the grid! Roope Virtanen was the first Fin out and set a lap time of 42.5seconds so would take his place after Arand on the grid. Fellow countryman Jarno Vilmunen took to the water with his matching Roopeβs time with his first lap he knew he had to change his lines to secure pole, he put in an absolutely flying perfect second lap and set pole at 41.8seconds. The final boat in Qualifying was Tino Lehto pushing hard during his first lap the boat began to catch the wind and Tino was forced to adjust his trim costing him vital seconds. Securing 42.0s on his second lap would see him forced to settle for second on the grid behind Jarno.
A delay in proceedings saw the official race start time commence at 18.15 and as the lights went out all of the boats powered away from the start Tino Lehto powered into the first turn leading the pack and as they rounded the first buoy there was nothing separating Arand, Vilmunen and Virtanen as they headed down the straight to turn 2 neck and neck. As they rounded turn 2 Arand kept it tight and managed to put some space between himself and the following Finβs and chasing to catch Lehto who had pulled away from the field.
Half way through the race pushing hard in third Jarno Vilmunen came unstuck as he found himself mount the turn buoy and was forced to settle for a 7th place finish. On what went wrong the Finnish racer had this to say βI had a bad start and then pushed too hard to try to overtake stefan and spun and hit the bouy. The event was very hot it was like driving in a sauna but a fantastic event Iβm very happy to be sitting in third after the weekend and iβd like to thank my sponsors and parents for the opportunity to come and race here.β
Paulius Stainys was forced to retire after his steering cable gave way and he couldnβt continue with the race.
Tino Lehto under immense pressure from Stefan Arand held his lead from start to finish and secured the gold medal for the weekend, Arand sailed home to take silver and joint championship leader with Lehto after the two rounds. Capitalising on errors by other racers Italyβs Oleg Bocca put in a strong position to finish 3rd in the race just ahead of Lativian Nils Slakteris.
We caught up with the weekends race winners on the event;
Tino Lehto from Finland caught up with us first βWinning in Brindisi was especially great. It was great event and atmosphere was so good, itβs a lovely place to race.β
He continued βMy next race will be the European Championship in Latvia. So we will try to have as many test and training sessions as possible before then. I have great team with me and we have worked hard and now we are starting to see some success. I want to continue to be better driver and I am working on it continuously. I am already looking forward next race!β
Joint championship leader Stefan Arand had this to say on the weekendβs event βFirst I have to thank my family and Erik from LAK Propellers who make it possible for me to race and give me the best possible chance of winning with my equipment. It was a great event and to win on saturday for me was really special following the disappointment of a disqualification during last years World Championship.β
βThe hard work will continue in the hopes of finding some more speed before the European Championship in Latvia and the other World Championship round in Lithuania. I also have an endurance race in Augustow, Poland where I am teaming up with Nils Slakteris which should be pretty exciting and will give me lots of seat time in the boat and help prepare me for the Euros!β
The World Championship will conclude in Lithuania in September with the racers attentions turning first to the European championships in Aluksne, Latvia on the 16th & 17th July.
