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The opening race of the final round of the F4 Central European Zone at Automotodrom Brno saw a perfect drive from Javier Herrera, who started from pole position and held the lead all the way to the chequered flag. Max Karhan finished second, narrowing the points gap to championship leader Gino Trappa.

Four Jenzer Motorsport cars occupied the first two rows: Herrera, Cortes, Karhan and Trappa. Behind them, the third row featured Mathilda Paatz and Andreas Lo Bue, while Benett Gáspár and Kiril Kutskov started from row four.

Herrera kept the lead at the start, with Karhan slotting into second and Cortes third. Kutskov made a fantastic getaway to move into fourth, Paatz was fifth and Trappa dropped to sixth. The start was clean, and all drivers completed the opening lap.

While the front-runners followed each other closely, a three-wide battle developed between Stefan Treneski, František Němec and Michalina Sabaj for 15th place, providing spectacular racing for the fans in the grandstands.

At the front, Herrera maintained the lead with Karhan less than a second behind. Cortes followed a little further back, with Kutskov in fourth ahead of Paatz, who was busy defending her position from championship leader Trappa.

With ten minutes to go, the field began to spread out, though some close battles remained. Gáspár pressured Lo Bue for seventh place, while Nicole Havrda was glued to the rear wing of Teodor Borenstein. Paatz also managed to pull clear of Trappa and closed in on Kutskov in fourth.

In the closing stages, Herrera came under increasing pressure as Karhan stayed within a second, refusing to let the gap grow. Cortes also closed in, followed by Kutskov, Paatz and Trappa, though none of them were quite close enough to launch an attack.

With two minutes remaining, Gáspár launched an attack on Lo Bue, but the two collided at the next corner. Lo Bue ended up facing the wrong way and dropped down the order.

Herrera went on to win the race ahead of Karhan, with Kiril Kutskov moving past Nicolas Cortes to take third. Paatz finished fifth, Trappa sixth, Hady Mimassi seventh, Lo Bue received 10 seconds penalty for collision with Mimassi and was eighth, Simon Schranz ninth and David Gorčica rounded out the top ten.

F4 – Race 1 – results

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