American driver James Egozi turned his pole position start into a dominant victory in the first race of the ACCR Czech Formula at the Red Bull Ring. The PHM Racing team’s joy was doubled by Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi, who finished second, with Reno Francot coming in third.
Shortly before the race start, there was a short rain shower over the track, and even though the track remained relatively dry and the drivers stayed on slick tyres, a wet race was declared and the race started behind the safety car.
The formula 4 cars circled behind the safety car for the first two laps. Once the race started for real, Michael Sauter attacked leader James Egozi and took the lead. However, Egozi did not give up and retook the lead on the long straight leading to the second turn. Meanwhile, Bhirombhakdi attacked Sauter, followed by Francot.
The top four drivers pulled away from their pursuers Jakobsen, Tylor, Šafránek, Michl, Mikeš, and Ischer, who fell to the back after contact with his teammate Jakobsen.
In the sixth lap, Bhirombhakdi attacked Sauter and after a passing maneuver lasting from the second turn to the technical section of the track, he took second place. From that moment on, the PHM Racing team held the top two positions.
In the next lap, Sauter was overtaken by Reno Francot from the Jenzer Motorsport team. However, Sauter did not give up and in the following lap, he tried to regain third place. Francot, however, defended his position, and in the meantime, Mathias Jakobsen, another representative of the Jenzer Motorsport team, caught up with them. Jakobsen overtook Sauter in the ninth lap, but their battle did not end there, and for almost the entire following lap, these two young drivers drove side by side. In the end, Sauter was the more successful.
Towards the end of the race, Bhirombhakdi came under pressure from third-placed Francot, but the Thai driver held his position.
James Egozi finished the race as the winner, with a four-second lead over Bhirombhakdi and Francot in second and third place, respectively. Michael Sautner finished in fourth place, with Mathias Jakobsen coming in fifth, however he received ten second penalty for his incident with team mate Ethan Ischer in the first lap and dropped to sixth place behind Ischer. Seventh was Niko Tylor, Jiří Šafránek finished in eighth place, with Oliver Michl in ninth and Miroslav Mikeš in tenth.
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