New Zealand’s Faine Kahia added three more wins to his Formula 4 Southeast Asia Championship campaign following a remarkable round of racing at Sentul Indonesia on 11-13 November 2016.
The 6-race weekend kicked off with pre-event collective tests, in which drivers were put through their paces on the 4.12km long Sentul International Circuit. Kahia’s strong lap times throughout the dry test conditions were a good indication of his success to come.
A wet qualifying session was of no consequence to Kahia who posted a scorching lap time at the very end of the session, claiming pole position for the first race.
However, despite a perfect start off the line, Race 1 did not quite go to plan for the Kiwi as his car suffered a problem with the exhaust, forcing Kahia to retire from the race in the opening lap. Kahia explained, “not long after I launched off the start and got away from the field the car sounded odd and was crazily slow by the second turn. I then felt the cabin temperature rising quite significantly, getting hotter and hotter, so I cruised back to the pits. The mechanics discovered the exhaust was broken and pushing hot fumes into the cabin and behind the fuel tank, so it was a good call to have stopped when I did.”
The DNF result of Race 1 put Kahia into the challenging scenario of having to start Race 2 from last place. Undeterred and on a mission to regain a position at the front, Kahia did eventually make it through the pack and into the lead, but after being hit with a controversial drive-through penalty he crossed the finish line in 5th.
Race 3 saw Kahia bounce back to claim his first victory of the weekend with a good clean race that certainly highlighted his true pace. Kahia led the field from the early laps and through two safety car restarts, to take the win.
A wet Race 4 became Kahia’s next challenge. While holding a consistent second place through the opening laps the track then began drying out. The lead car, driven by Danial Frost (Singapore), was soon affected from tyre degradation allowing Kahia to take advantage and overtake him to gain the lead. Despite Kahia pulling away to create a significant gap, eventually his tyres went off also, enabling Presley Martono (Indonesia) who was racing on fresher tyres, the opportunity to pass Kahia on the last corner of the last lap. Kahia then settled for a 2nd place finish.
Race 5 saw Kahia take advantage of new tyres on the dry track, blitzing the field into an early lead and dominating with some of the quickest times of the weekend. Consistent and fast, Kahia would remain at the front of the field from start to finish to claim his second win of the weekend and yet another blistering fastest lap time.
A rain-soaked Race 6 finale would also belong to the Kiwi, with Kahia once again leading from start to finish and repeating his performance of setting the quickest lap time. Kahia dominated with pace and made no mistakes whilst pushing his car to the absolute limits to take out the final race in first place.
In summing up the weekend, Kahia said “Sentul is an amazing track. It looks simple on paper but is one of those tracks where if you’re an inch off the race line you will find yourself in the grass or in a wall. During testing I made sure to find the limits and I quickly learned that conquering this track would have to come down to precision driving.
“Official testing went great and posting a quick time gave me confidence heading into qualifying. The heavens opened then boom I smashed it in qualy to get my first pole position for the season. Race 1, however, was the start of the rollercoaster weekend but from race 3 onward we were back up again so overall I was very pleased with how it finished. With four podiums, including three wins, fastest lap times in three races, qualifying on pole and extending my lead of the Championship, I couldn’t be more satisfied with that!”
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