Nerea Martí endured a challenging yet valuable weekend at her home circuit in Valencia during the Spanish F4 Championship, gaining crucial experience despite difficult race results, which she aims to leverage in her upcoming F1 Academy round in Singapore.
Nerea Martí returned to the Spanish F4 Championship at Valencia and endured a character-building weekend at her home circuit. The GRS Team driver showed encouraging speed in both practice and qualifying, however the highly competitive nature of the grid and tight confines of the circuit made overtaking challenging.
Nonetheless, Martí’s best result of 22nd position was a season’s best effort in the Spanish F4 Championship and she was able to bank valuable knowledge ahead of the final events of her F1 Academy campaign.
Racing at her home circuit of Valencia, Martí aimed to bank further knowledge in the Spanish F4 Championship following her appearance at Motorland Aragon. It was a challenging event for Nerea as she competed with GRS Team, however the Spanish driver secured two podium finishes at Valencia in the 2023 F1 Academy season.
Currently sitting fourth in the all-female single seater series this season, Martí was looking to develop her racecraft as she pushed for a late-season challenge for a top-3 position in the championship.
On-track action began on Friday with an initial test session which allowed drivers to gain familiarity with the circuit. It was an extremely encouraging session for Marti who set the tenth fastest time overall in a field of 36 drivers. Nerea’s quickest lap of a 1:33.360 was less than half a second away from pacesetter Juan Cota, while Martís first sector was within a tenth of a second of the best overall.
Saturday’s running began with two free practice sessions with the drivers getting a final opportunity to tune their cars ahead of the all-important qualifying session. Times remained extremely close in the first session, with Martí’s fastest time placing her 24th overall but less than a second away from Griffin Peebles’ fastest lap. The second session was equally competitive with Nerea setting the 21st quickest time, three-quarters of a second away from the fastest lap of the session.
Qualifying took place early on Saturday afternoon and was set to take place over a duration of twenty-minutes. It was a challenging first half of the session for Martí who sat in 28th position as the red flag was displayed just past the halfway point.
As the session resumed, Nerea picked up the pace and had set two personal best sectors which would’ve seen her set a time towards the overall top-15. However, a second red flag was displayed seconds before she crossed the line and therefore she was unable to complete the lap. Despite returning to the circuit for one final effort, the peak of the tyre had passed and therefore it was an unfortunate session with Martí ending qualifying in 28th position.
Looking to make progress in the first race of the weekend, it was a challenging initial start for Marti who dropped a couple of positions off the line. However, there were a number of incidents on lap one and therefore Nerea was able to take full advantage to end the opening lap in 26th position, two places higher than she started. As the race resumed, Martí protected her position well before focusing her attention forward to line up an overtake on Wiktor Dobrzanski.
The nature of Circuit Ricardo Tormo made overtaking challenging and therefore capitalising on mistakes would be crucial to moving forward. On lap eight, Martí made her move by overtaking Adam Hideg and Peter Bouzinelos, while Francisco Macedo and Jan Przyrowski entered the pits. Although a recovering Alex Ninovic moved ahead with Adam Al Azhari also overtaking the GRS Team driver, Martí was up to 24th position.
A series of fast laps had now seen Nerea build up a sizeable gap behind and therefore her attention could be focused forward. After applying pressure to Dobrzanski, Martí moved ahead on lap 15 and ran two consecutive personal best times and was now faster than the next five drivers ahead. A strong end to the race saw Martí gain one further position and end race of the weekend in 22nd position.
Sunday’s action began with the second qualifying session in order to set the grid for the final race of the weekend. After her strong drive through the field in the opening race of the weekend, Martí was aiming to carry this forward and target a good starting position. It was a session of improvement for Nerea who found three tenths of a second from the first qualifying session on Saturday. Her rivals were also able to better their times and as a result, Nerea had set the 28th quickest time overall.
Grid positions for the second race of the weekend were based on the second fastest times from the first qualifying session on Saturday, therefore Martí would line up from 25th position. Misfortune struck as the lights went out, with the Spanish driver stalling and therefore falling to the rear of the field. From there, a recovery drive was required and Nerea’s early race pace was strong as she was matching those inside the overall top-15.
On lap three, Martí was able to gain three positions after Alex Ninovic stopped out on track, while Maximiliano Restrepo and Alexander Jacoby entered the pits with damage. Martí’s pace remained strong in the middle portion of the race and as she was closing in on the group of cars ahead, the safety car was deployed with Francisco Macedo retiring from the race.
As the race restarted, Martí passed Matus Ryba and Tim Gerhards, although a recovering Jacoby was able to find a way through. Crossing the line in 31st position, Nerea was promoted to 30th following a penalty for Eloi Gonzalez.
For the final race of the weekend, the grid was based on the results from the second qualifying session with Martí lining up from 27th position, one spot higher than she qualified after a penalty for a rival.
Nerea made a good initial launch and was challenging for positions inside the top-25, however she was shuffled back during the second half of lap one and fell to 34th position. After Matus Ryba entered the pits on lap two, she was up to 33rd position and looking to regain lost ground.
Although a recovering Nathan Tye moved ahead, Martí was able to pass Rene Lammers to ensure she remained in 33rd position. On lap seven, Alexander Jacoby was able to find a way through with the racing remaining extremely close at the back end of the field. Martí spent the middle portion of the race applying pressure to Jacoby in an attempt to force a mistake from the rookie driver.
Overtaking remained challenging throughout the field and although Nerea was unable to pass Jacoby, she gained a position on lap 17 as Peter Bouzinelos entered the pits. Following a good late move on Filippo Fiorentino, Martí was classified in 33rd position once penalties were applied to end a challenging weekend at her home circuit.
Martí banked valuable experience at Valencia and although she did not achieve the results which her speed deserved, the knowledge gained will prove useful in the latter half of the season. Nerea’s attention will now be focused on the forthcoming round of F1 Academy which takes place on the Marina Bay streets in Singapore in less than one weeks’ time.
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