SEPANG (25th November 2019) – Ireland’s Lucca Allen emerged the big winner when he dominated proceedings with three victories in Event 9 of the FIA Formula 4 SEA Championship – fueled by Petron – at the Sepang International Circuit yesterday.
Allen’s hopes of a clean sweep were prevented by Finland’s Elias Seppanen who held off his rival to claim the Race 4 title.
Allen started the weekend with a fine performance in Race 1 and followed that up with further wins in the second and third races earlier today. But his hopes of extending his blistering run were blocked by Seppanen.
“I was pushing as hard as I could to try and get close to make a move, but Elias did not make any mistakes,” said Allen, who was pleased with his overall results this week. “This week, I finished first, first, first and second and that’s not bad.”
Seppanen, meanwhile, started well and had to work overtime to stay ahead. “I had a pretty good start. I managed not to make any mistakes and kept the lead to the end.”
With the season rapidly coming to an end, the drivers pushed themselves to the limit as they hunted down precious championship points in this penultimate round. The season finale, Event 10, featuring four more races, is scheduled here at Sepang from Dec 13-15.
For his triumphant efforts this week, Allen emerged the Event 9 winner. Seppanen was next in line after making it to the podium in the three earlier races. Muizz meanwhile was third overall thanks to his three third placings this week.
In Race 2 this morning, Allen capitalised on a storming start to sensationally shoot up the grid. From eighth, he managed to quickly moved into fourth and by the end of the first lap, snatched the lead which he held on to til the end. He blazed away and finished 4.2 seconds ahead of Seppanen with Muizz completing the podium.
Later during Race 3, Allen launched a stunning comeback, working his way from the back row. Another Irish driver, Luke Thompson had led for several laps from the start but Allen picked up the pace and slipped past Thompson on lap six.
Thompson settled for second, just over two seconds behind, with Seppanen settling for third. In the final race of the day, Seppanen, who had been behind Allen in the earlier races, finally had something to smile about. He had a great start but Allen was soon on his back in a massive battle which lasted to the end. But Seppanen delivered a solid performance to defend his position and was the first across the finish, less than 0.5 seconds ahead of Allen.
Muizz was third again and not too pleased about it. “I had three third placings, but it was neither good or bad,” Muizz admitted.
