The Madras double header in India saw Irish sensation Lucca Allen finish with three more pole positions, 4 podium finishes and two more victories to add to his scorecard in the South East Asia Formula 4.

Difficult times

Unable to find the perfect set up for the Indian circuit on the first weekend, Lucca put his superb talent to good use, and completed the round with two more podium finishes to his name.

“The first weekend was difficult and I couldn’t get it to work properly. Madras is a very tactical circuit, not wide as Sepang and it’s hard to overtake on. The car had problems, such as understeering, set up problems and tyre grip. But in race 4 we finally got the set up right! I started P2 and had a really strong race, in the battle for the lead as I got faster and faster.”

“The weekend was hard to take overall with my results and my championship lead decreasing quite a lot, so it was good to end of a high.”

19-21 July, Madras Motor Race Track

Fighting back

Confident that he had found a good set up, Lucca went into the second Indian weekend ready to fight back and, fight back he did! “After the first weekend I spent a bit of time getting myself back into the right mindset and giving myself the right kind of confidence for the next weekend. It wasn’t like I could just go home to reflect and have a bit of a break and just not worry about it. I was looking forward to the weekend and I was confident I could do well.”

Starting from pole for the first race of round six in the SEA F4 Championship, the young Irishman stormed into lead, but with three laps to go his charge came to a halt when his car suffered a mechanical issue.

“I started the weekend off very well with pole in qualifying which meant I had pole in races 1 and 4. I was quite comfortable to take the win but my gears stopped working. It was really gutting at that moment because my two championship rivals were right behind me.”

Back on pole for the next race, Lucca made a brilliant start and kept up the pace throughout the race to take the chequered flag for his first win of the weekend. However, officials deemed he had

Even stronger

“When I think about the end of the championship, I’d give anything to have those 2 wins in the bag. It was hard to pick myself back up again, hard to see my rivals gain so much from my losses, but I managed to get a positive mindset for the next morning.”

Starting from 7th on the grid for race 3, Lucca made a blinding start and was up into second by the end of the first lap and in the lead after a Safety Car neutralization.

The final race was another blaze of glory for the Irishman who took a superb lights to flag victory from his 3rd pole position of the weekend.

“I just put my head down and had two good starts. There was a lot more pressure on me at this point than other times. It was a case of ‘I can’t really afford any more bad results this weekend’. I managed to get up to 4th after the first corner in the 3rd race then picked them off one by one and won the race in the end. I was delighted with that but didn’t get too overjoyed as I still had another race to go.”

“There was a small incident between me and another driver who tried to take me out when he re-joined the circuit. Luckily my car got a bit out of shape, but I managed to save it. I then went on to win that race again. I feel I won all 4 races. It was out of my control and it would have hurt more if it was mistakes I made. It was just bad luck and it will swing round about and it won’t only be me that gets hit with bad luck.”

made a jump start penalty

place.

and he was given a 10 second time as a result, which left him down in 5th

Championship

Elias Seppänen – 403

Lucca Allen – 402

Shihab Al Habsi – 303