Reflecting on Slovakia Ring: The title fight heats up after Slovakia Ring. Trappa still leads, but Karhan is closing in.

25. 8. 2025 0 News Slovakia Ring

The penultimate round of the F4 Central European Zone championship at Slovakia Ring delivered plenty of drama – both on track and behind the scenes. Championship leader Gino Trappa had the chance to seal his successful season with the title already in Slovakia, but the ever-consistent Max Karhan had other plans.

Jenzer Motorsport teammates Gino Trappa and Max Karhan have been at the front of the standings thanks to their steady results all year. Their fellow teammates Nicolas Cortes and Javier Herrera started the season more cautiously, leaving them out of the title fight, though not out of contention on track. Herrera already claimed victory in Most and Cortes scored his first pole position in Slovakia. Still, it was Trappa who crossed the finish line first in Race 1 and celebrated on the podium – only to lose the win later.

Trappa was penalized for inconsistent pace and heavy braking behind the safety car. Although the penalty was just five seconds, the fact the race ended under safety car conditions dropped him down to 12th place, outside the points. The win instead went to last year’s vice-champion Kirill Kutskov of Maffi Racing. Javier Herrera finished second on the road, but a two-second penalty for track limits pushed him back to seventh. That handed P2 to Max Karhan and P3 to Hady Mimassi of Renauer Motorsport.

A win is a win, even if it falls into your lap. But in Race 2, Kutskov wanted to take victory the right way, by crossing the line first. Standing in his way was Mimassi, who was flying and kept both Kutskov and Karhan behind him for much of the race. Eventually Kutskov found a way past, but Karhan could not. And Trappa? He was beaten to the line by just 0.067 seconds by a brilliant Benett Gáspár, and finishing fifth. After the stewards got involved, Trappa was demoted to eighth following a five-second penalty for contact with Simon Schranz.

In the final race of the weekend, Trappa left nothing to chance. Starting from 12th, he charged through the field and was sixth after the opening lap, second after three laps, and finally past Herrera with ten minutes to go. The finishing order of Trappa, Herrera and Karhan meant another display of dominance for Jenzer Motorsport.

For Karhan, it was his tenth consecutive podium finish, a remarkable streak unmatched by anyone else on the grid. Thanks to this consistency, he cut the gap to Trappa down to 35 points. Trappa’s pace was superb all weekend and without penalties he could have scored 60 points. Instead, his tally was limited to just 29.

Strong performances also came from Hady Mimassi and Zengő Motorsport’s Benett Gáspár. The Hungarian claimed two fourth-place finishes, his best results of the season. One of the unluckiest driver of the weekend was Nicolas Cortes, who failed to convert his strong qualifying into points, leaving Slovakia empty-handed. He wasn’t the only one struck by misfortune, as Mathilda Paatz had a brilliant start to the final race, overtaking Mimassi to grab second place, but a contact on the main straight gave her a puncture and left Mimassi with a broken front wing.

It was also the most successful weekend yet for Maffi Racing’s Teodor Borenstein, who scored points in every race. Fellow countrymen David Gorčica (Janík Motorsport) and František Němec (JMT Racing) also impressed, while Němec’s teammate, Canadian driver Nicole Havrda, made a one-off appearance from F1 Academy and twice finished inside the top ten.

Now the championship moves to Brno in two weeks for the final round of the impressive 2025 season. Let´s follow the last fight for the title.