After a couple of unlucky rounds, Swiss driver Léna Bühler claimed her first Top 5 finish in the fifth round of the Spanish F4 championship at Aragon.
MotorLand Aragon hosted of the fifth round of the Spanish F4 championship last weekend, where Léna Bühler conquered her best result of the season so far. As the Iberian-based series moves to Jarama for its penultimate round of the 2020 season, let's round out the latest races.
The Swiss lady took the start to the first race in Aragon from the eight grid slot, while Boya, Dufek, Bordàs and Haverkort lined up in the first two rows.
Léna initially dropped one place as Thomas ten Brinke moved up on the Drivex racer and, soon after, the race was characterized by the battle for eight between the young lady, the Dutch MP Motorsport driver and the Paul-Adrien Pallot - a fight that featured some intense side by side action. Meanwhile, Haverkort brought himself up to second place ahead of Bordàs, as the young Spaniard Boya was still leading the field.
In the following laps, ten Brinke advanced to P7 by passing Martinez, with the Formula De Campeones driver also under big pressure from Pallot and Bühler behind him. After some more intense switch-backs, Pallot was able to make the move on Martinez with also Léna Bühler taking advantage from the fight and overtaking the Spaniard for eight position.
Up ahead, Boya managed to open a small gap from the closest rivals as the Haverkort-Dufek duo battled hard for P2 - the Dutchman ultimately coming out on top of the duel.
Soon, the competition for the final step of the podium also heated up: Bordàs, Shameli and ten Brinke were all following each other closely - not far ahead from Pallot and Bühler, who could further reduce the gap and joined the party.
Driving under intense pressure, Shameli left the train of cars when he made a mistake that dropped him to ninth and granted seventh place to Léna Bühler. But the ill-fated moment for the Swiss lady came just a few corners later: as she went three-wide on the Aragon main straight and had almost got ahead of both Pallot and Bordàs, Léna was hit and was forced to retire with a broken front suspension, bringing to an early ending an otherwise very convicing Race 1.
Boya defended his tight margin from Haverkort and won the first race of the weekend ahead of his teammate, while Dufek held the last podium position from the attacks of ten Brinke, which had become more pressing during the final laps.
Race 1 winner Boya, Bordàs and Haverkort started Race 2 from the front rows, as Léna saw the green lights from P8.
The leading trio retained positions, but the action was soon halted by an early Safety Car interruption when the two Global Racing Services drivers collided.
The race resumed with 11 minutes to go; Martinez passed Bordàs for third in a still very compact pack, and the Formula De Campeones driver was successively protagonist of a great move for second on Haverkort, just as the Dutch racer was trying to challenge Boya's leadership.
Thomas ten Brinke emerged during the final laps as a podium contender, as the driver of the #23 MP Motorsport Tatuus overtook fellow countryman Haverkort for third and went on to complete a winning move on Martinez for second.
Léna Bühler's misfortune continued into Saturday's second race: while she was again fighting for seventh after another very solid race, she dropped several positions after a contact with Eriksen in the hectice phases of the final minutes.
Mari Boya claimed also Race 2 victory, followed by Thomas ten Brinke and Kas Haverkort in yet another MP Motorsport 1-2-3.
The final race of the weekend saw Dutch duo Haverkort/Ten Brinke sharing the first row of the grid, while Léna Bühler slotted again in P9.
At the start, ten Brinke stalled on the grid and Pallot was immediately out in an unrelated accident, forcing the Safety Car to make its first Sunday appearance. Bühler had a good start and avoided carnage, placing her #15 Drivex car into sixth place after the chaotic opening stages of race 3.
With ten minutes to go, Goethe and Boya battled for third, while Martinez and Bühler significantly closed the gap to the front runners.
The Danish driver defended aggressively for a full lap, but was ultimately forced to give up P3 to Boya. Bühler and Martinez - who had eventually joined the battle - both tried to sneak into fourth place.
Martinez and Bühler made contact, but luckily no damages to their cars was recorded and both continued. Martinez soon moved ahead of Goethe for P4 at Turn 1 with 5 minutes left on the clock. The Formula de Campeones driver then made a mistake on the following lap which allowed both Goethe and Bühler to pass him and the Swiss driver immediately pressed Goethe for fourth.
Carles Martinez's battling race ended with a spin after a contact with Eriksen, just as Léna continued to find a way past Goethe on the penultime lap. But her charge was soon interrupted by a red flag when Joullie and Nosov collided in the midfield.
Kas Heverkort was declared winner of Race 3, ahead of Bordàs and Boya. Léna Bühler, fifth at the finish line, clinched her best result of the season so far.
“I am really very happy with the result of Race 3." - she said. "It was a very competitive weekend but I was too unlucky in race 1 and race 3 even though we had a good race pace. Thanks to all the Drivex team and all my sponsors, now let’s see what we can do this weekend for round 6. We are ready.” - she added.
As cars will hit the track at Jarama, you can follow the sixth round of the Spanish F4 championship via the series official channels on November 6th-7th.
