Natasha Seatter registered another double victory in the Formula Gulf 1000 after taking the chequered flag in Rounds 3 and 4 at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi over the weekend.
Spanish driver Nick Canal took pole position during the morning’s qualifying session with a lap just 0.0149 of a second better than Rahul Mayer, who had flown in from Malaysia for the event. All drivers qualified within one-and-a-half seconds.
Sharing the weekend with the Porsche GT3 Middle East Challenge, Round 3 got underway with Canal getting a great start, which was not the case for Mayer, or Emirati driver Haytham Sultan Al Ali, who had qualified in third place.
But it was not long before Southeast Asia’s fastest lady driver, Seatter, closed in on Canal.
Seatter made her move on lap 19 to take the lead, which she held on to finish just two seconds ahead of Canal followed by Mayer, Sultan, Saeed Bintouq and Harsh Rajpal.
The fastest lap went to Seatter on lap 21. With the grid for Round 4 based on the result of the previous race, Seatter made a blistering start, leaving Canal and Mayer behind.
Mayer, however, appeared to have the edge over Canal and made his move to pass the latter and then set off after Seatter.
He closed the gap to less than five seconds, setting the fastest lap time of the race on lap 21 in the process, to finish on the podium in second place ahead of Canal.
Team principal Barry Hope said: “We always knew that if we gave drivers identical cars it would make them focus totally on their driving.”
Rounds 5 and 6 take place at the Dubai Motorsport Festival on December 13-14 at the Dubai Autodrome.
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