The Al Qubaisi sisters were back together for the final round of the 2019 Italian F4. Amna had a challenging weekend under the tricky mixed conditions, while younger Hamda shone to bring home some solid results.
The "Temple of Speed", as it is nicknamed the famous Monza circuit, was the stage of the conclusive act of the Italian F4 championship by Abarth this past weekend.
Due to adverse weather conditions, the 30 young drivers provided highly unprediclable and spectacular races, characterized also by many mistakes on the very tricky wet track. Furthermore, the situation was made worse by the low visibility.
The new Red Bull Junior ace Dennis Hauger, racing with the Van Amersfoort squad, dominated the entire Monza weekend and took home three more victories in his commanding 2019 F4 Italian Championship season.
The Norwegian was able to convert his pole position claimed during the first qualifying session into a hardly fought triumph. The second race saw several yellow flags, but Hauger won with a 4 seconds gap advantage to Russian Michael Belov, thanks to a stunning start and a perfect drive for the entire 30 minutes of the race duration.
The last race of season ended with another victory for the 2019 newly-crowned champion: after a decisive overtaking move on Jenzer Motorsport's Jonny Edgar, a fellow Red Bull Junior program driver, with 4 minutes to the chequered flag.
It was a difficult final weekend for one of the revelations of this season, the Arab Iron Lynx driver Amna Al Qubaisi.
The 19-year old girl, racing for the Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema team, made a mistake under Safety Car during the starting procedure for race 1, which forced her to resume her race from the back of the field. Unfortunately, her Saturday ended with a DNF and a grid penalty for the following race, as she made contact with another competitor during the final laps of the first race.
Sunday's competitions were once again driven by some more misfortune for the Arab lady, who completed her Formula 4 season with a 28th place finish in Race 2 and a DNF in Race 3.
Despite this unlucky final Monza round, it was a positive season for Amna Al Qubaisi. The Abu Dhabi native driver made big improvements race after race, especially in the wheel-to-wheel action that is so common on a 30-cars field. She claimed two top-15 finish, with a P13 in Mugello's race 1 as her best Formula 4 result of 2019. Amna progresses are particularly valuable considered the high-level of the Italian Formula 4 championship, widely considered as one of the most competitive F4 series in the world.
Amna's second year proves that she has the potential for a promising future in formula cars.
The youngest of the Al Qubaisi sisters and fellow Iron Lynx team member, Hamda was back behind the wheel of a F4 car in Monza for the second time this season after the Austrian Red Bull Ring round in July.
The 17 years old lady drove some consistently clean races throughout the weekend. Hamda survided an error-free first race in extremely difficult conditions, whereas most of the field was caught up in incidents and mistakes.
"Today's race was in very wet conditions and I enjoied it because it's my first time racing in the wet with the car and it was very slippery." - said Hamda Al Qubaisi after her P25 finish in Race 1. "It's very hard but it's all a learning experience in the end and I hope to bring this experience with me into other races".
Hamda finished 26th in Race 2 , while at the end of the 2019 Italian F4 season finale the #78 Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema car crossed the finish line in P21, claiming her best career result.
Amna and Hamda Al Qubaisi will be back on track on their home soil during the F4 special race in support of the Abu Dhabi Formula One round on November. The F4 UAE trophy will be one more big stage for the two upcoming Emirati stars, in front of the worldwide audience of F1.
Ph credits: Racers-BehindTheHelmet.com
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