The Singapore talent turned into the dominant force at F4 Spain’s season finale and won all the three races at Circuit de Barcelona-Cataunya to wrap up the Vice-Championship
Campos Racing and Singaporean driver Christian Ho achieved the Vice-Championship in the 2023 F4 Spain Championship season after the final round, which took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this weekend. Ho delivered his best performance of the year in Montmeló scoring all the three wins and, including his triumph in Race 3 in Valencia, they were four in-a-row. Besides, Campos Racing also finished Vice-Champion in the teams’ standings despite the squad counted towards the standings with two separated names: Campos Racing Drivers Development and Campos Racing. In total, the Valencia-based racing team scored 865 points, almost a doubling of their closest rival. Besides, the three best rookie drivers classified raced under the Campos Racing banner.
Campos Racing made a strong start to the season finale as Ho, Enzo Deligny and Matteo De Palo led the way for the team in FP1. Later in FP2, up to five drivers in Campos Racing colors made it in the top-ten, proving the ultra-competitive package of the team in Barcelona.
But Q1, which took place on Saturday afternoon, was the first real exam of this weekend. Ho stormed to pole position with a lap time of 1m41.230s and the Spanish team notched another front row lockout as Deligny qualified second-fastest with a lap time of 1m41.381s. Noah Strømsted posted the 5th-fastest lap time of 1m41.867s with Italian De Palo and Mexican Jesse Carrasquedo Jr. in seventh and ninth respectively. Peruvian Andrés Cárdenas experienced a problematic qualifying session and he couldn’t improve his lap time of 1m42.997s, which damaged his chances as he set to start from 27th on the grid.
The second-fastest lap time, which determined the starting grid for race 2, also saw Ho and Deligny sharing the front row. At the same time, Strømsted and De Palo qualified in fourth and fifth place on the starting grid. Carrasquedo secured one of his best starting grid positions by finishing seventh and Cárdenas took 21st place this time.
Race 1 saw Ho and Deligny leading the field when the lights went out. But an incident on the first lap triggered the first safety car period. At the restart, Ho mastered the timing with Deligny getting involved in a battle with Valerio Rinicella and Theophile Naël for the remaining places on the podium. Ho always had the upper hand and remained unchallenged for the win ahead of Rinicella and Naël. Deligny crossed the finish line in fourth place and was the best rookie classified ahead of Strømsted and De Palo. Cárdenas’ recovery drive allowed him to finish in 15th. Carrasquedo Jr. experienced an eventful race and ended up in 27th.
Sunday dawned with Q2 and Ho and Deligny extended their form to dominate the session once again. Ho put together a lap of 1m41.505s beating Deligny by a mere 34 thousandths of a second. De Palo clocked a lap of 1m41.958s ahead of Carrasquedo and Strømsted, they all separated by a few thousandths of a second. Cárdenas stopped the clock on a time of 1m42.291s and qualified in 13th.
Race 2 proved to be another fertile ground for Campos Racing. When the lights went out, Ho led the pack ahead of Deligny. Strømsted and De Palo also made their way up to fourth and fifth respectively. Further adrifht, Carrasquedo was running in seventh in the early stages of the race. Two safety cars didn’t prevent Ho and Deligny from achieving a 1-2 finish for Campos Racing at the end of the race. Strømsted rounded out the top-5 with De Palo right behind in sixth place. Peruvian Cárdenas moved through the field to finish in an impressive 7th place. Carrasquedo Jr. ended up in 19th.
Ho completed a perfect weekend in race 3. The Singaporean talent kept his rivals at bay at the start and nobody else could challenge him in another lights-to-flag triumph for the new Vice-Champion of the F4-based racing series. De Palo took the checkered flag in a remarkable fourth place with Strømsted finally classified in an 8th place following a last-minute time penalty costing him two places. Carrasquedo was forced to retire after 11 laps with Cárdenas unable to make it to the finish following a race incident in lap 3.
After a season-long battle, the whole team is already focused on 2024. The preparation starts today!