Kai Daryanani scored his best result of the F4 British Championship season at the weekend (July 12-14) taking fourth place with Fortec Motorsports in the final race of the weekend.
After bright and sunny conditions ahead of practice on Thursday – for the series’ first ever international meeting – Friday’s qualifying took place under cold, wet, and windy skies, with two red flags disrupting the 20-minute session. In the final moments, Kai put in a great effort to finish sixth, with Nina Gademan 14th, and Alex Berg 21st.
The weather wasn’t much better on Saturday morning for the opening race, where Alex had unavoidable damage on lap one, as a car rejoined the track and caused the driver ahead of him to brake suddenly. Suffering damaged steering, he did well to keep on track to the flag finishing 22nd, while ahead of him, Nina battled her way to 16th position, and Kai kept his cool to gain six places to claim a strong sixth place.
Unfortunately, race two was abandoned and moved to Sunday morning after a technical problem led to a multiple-car incident which caught up Nina, who thankfully didn’t sustain much damage. When the contest finally started, Kai almost took fourth from seventh on the grid, but was tapped into a spin, falling to last place. He then put in an excellent recovery drive, making his way back to 13th by the time the chequered flag was shown. Nina almost cracked the top 10, taking 12th, while Alex battled his way up to 15th.
Kai had another good start for the final race, moving into fourth and challenging for third before he dropped one spot as the driver behind snuck through. Alex was moving forward, gaining five places, while Nina was fighting hard to recover after losing places when she ran wide at turn 12. Sadly, she was then taken out in a five-car incident through no fault of her own, which also caused Alex to run through the gravel, losing a number of positions. After a red flag, Kai ran well in fourth, taking that place at the flag, while Alex pushed on, gaining 13th around the outside of turn one and made one final pass for 12th on the final lap.
With the car proving to be quick in different weather conditions, the team and drivers will now be focusing on a strong end to the season when the series heads to Knockhill in Scotland, over the weekend of August 9-11.
Kai Daryanani #8
Race 1: Start – 12, Result – 6
Race 2: Start – 7, Result – 13
Race 3: Start – 6, Result – 4
Championship: 11 (49 points)
“It’s been a really good weekend. I have been working off track on a lot of things and on track it has been positive from the get-go as we had pace even in FP2. Qualifying was super wet, so it was about adapting to the conditions as quickly as possible and thankfully I was able to do that. Race one was good fun, also in the wet, coming from 12th to sixth so we had good pace.
“Race two was unfortunate as perhaps there wasn’t enough gap for the inside and got taken out, but the pace was good enough for the top five and I went from 26th to 13th. In the last one, we started sixth and finished fourth, so a big thank you to Fortec as they have been so supportive and amazing this whole season. The car has felt really good and I managed to connect with it well, so it is nice to give them the results they deserve.”
Alex Berg #48
Race 1: Start – 22, Result – 22
Race 2: Start – 20, Result – 15
Race 3: Start – 26, Result – 12
Championship: 15 (40 points)
“I hadn’t tested at Zandvoort so did as much research as I could, watched videos, and did sim work, so I felt confident. In FP1 I was P18, but I was just learning the track and in FP2, on the second set of tyres I got a lap together for P8 which was good. Saturday it was wet, and I practiced that on the sim, so I felt good, and I was quick. We were at the back of the pit lane and would go out, start a lap, then the red flags came out or I caught traffic. On the clearest lap I had I touched the kerbs and lost time and if it wasn’t for that I could have been top-six, which kind of set the tone for the weekend.
“Race one was dangerously wet and there was a lot of spray. At T7 a car in front of me overreacted to a car coming off track and I had nowhere to go, hit them, and broke my tow link, so the wheel was at a 45-degree angle. Race two was mediocre – I gained six places but had some contact on the first lap, which was my fault, and I was penalised for it, so was moved five places back on the grid for race three. I made up seven spots and after the restart I gained another seven to finish P12, but it is frustrating that it is outside of the points. I’m not happy with myself and I am working hard for Knockhill, so I can only learn and move forward.”
Nina Gademan #3
Race 1: Start – 18, Result – 16 (Rookie: 7)
Race 2: Start – 13, Result – 12 (R: 4)
Race 3: Start – 13, Result – DNF
Championship: 21 (17 points)
Rookie Cup: 6 (116 points)
“In practice we were P14 and P12 out of 27 drivers so that’s good progress on such a hard track, but we had a tough qualifying as it was raining, so it was about having no traffic to get one lap in. I did that, but it wasn’t as good as it could have been, and I didn’t get a second quick lap because of the red flags. Race one was difficult in the back as you couldn’t see anything in the spray. People were crashing in front of me, so I had to avoid that, and I finished behind a big group of cars where nothing much happened.
“Race two was supposed to be on Saturday but there was a big crash at the start, and I was involved as I couldn’t avoid the car ahead. It was rescheduled for Sunday, we went from P14 to P12, and I had some battles and learned a lot which I took to race three. We started P14 but I was pushed wide on lap one and lost four or five places. I got three back in the next two laps, which was positive, and then people crashed at T7, I was right behind someone, and couldn’t see anything. I hit a spinning car, and hurt my hand on the steering wheel, so I didn’t finish. Overall, it was a positive weekend as we made a step forward from the last few races.”
