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Jenzer Motorsport driver Bart Harrison claimed victory in the opening race of the 2025 F4 Central European Zone at Red Bull Ring. Starting from pole position, Harrison led the entire race, which was interrupted by a safety car period following a first-lap collision.
Harrison and his teammate Gino Trappa lined up on the front row of the 21-car grid. Harrison maintained the lead into Turn 1, while Trappa was overtaken by AS Motorsport’s Chase Fernandez, who had a lightning start and jumped from fourth to second.
However, chaos unfolded in the first corner as Renauer Motorsport teammates Hady Mimassi and Simon Schranz collided. Schranz came to a halt in the run-off area, prompting the deployment of the safety car.
After three laps under yellow, the race resumed with Harrison leading Fernandez, Trappa, Javier Herrera and Luca Viisoreanu rounding out the top five.
Fernandez immediately launched an attack on Harrison for the lead. The pair went wheel-to-wheel down the second straight, but Harrison defended well in Turn 3, forcing Fernandez to drop back to third behind Trappa.
From there, Harrison began to pull away, setting a strong pace at the front. Trappa held second with a comfortable gap, while Fernandez and Herrera battled for third and fourth, closely followed by Max Karhan. However Czech driver was eventually overtaken by Viisoreanu and dropped to sixth in the closing stages.
Further down the field, Michalina Sabaj, Mathilda Paatz, Benett Gáspár, and David Gorčica were locked in an intense fight for 11th place. The battle lasted until the very end, with Gáspár coming out on top, followed by Gorčica. Paatz managed to overtake number of cars after the restart and also passed her teammate Sabaj and claimed victory in the Women’s Trophy classification.
Bart Harrison secured a dominant win in the first race of the weekend, finishing eight seconds ahead of his teammate Trappa. Fernandez closed the gap to Trappa to within half a second by the finish, but ran out of time to make a move.
Viisoreanu of Real Racing finished fourth, followed by three Jenzer Motorsport drivers: Javier Herrera, Max Karhan, and Nicolas Cortez. David Walter of Maffi Racing took eighth, Bautista Acosta (Jenzer Motorsport) was ninth, and Teo Borenstein rounded out the top ten for Maffi Racing.
The remaining two races of the weekend are scheduled for Sunday, with Race 2 at 9:30 and Race 3 at 13:45.
