Formula 4 is not a championship that we often cover on MotorSportsTalk, but Saturday’s support event at the Malaysian Grand Prix offered one of the most memorable races in recent times as none of the cars made it to the finish.
F4 South East Asia boasted a nine-car field for its season-opening round at Sepang, but was forced to move its second race of the weekend to Saturday morning after a loose drain cover that emerged at the end of the Formula 1 practice session led to the schedule being rejigged.
As a result, two races had to be run back-to-back ahead of the F1 practice session, giving little time for the field to get turned around.
Organizers fuelled the cars for both races as a result, but a miscalculation meant all of the runners ran dry and stopped on-track before completing the eight-lap distance.
With three cars parked up on the main straight and just two cars running, the safety car was deployed, only for the field to reduce to just one car when Nayan Chatterjee also stopped.
Kane Shepherd was the sole driver to complete the seventh lap of the race, only to also hit empty coming out of Turn 2, leaving all of the cars parked up on the circuit short of full distance.
Here’s your winner... on the back of a moped 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/VcLxkBSdeG
— Luke Smith (@LukeSmithF1) September 30, 2017
“I apologize unreservedly for the results of Race 3,” Asian Autosport Action chairman Peter Thompson said.
“With Races 2 and 3 back-to-back and without the possibility to top up, we filled the cars for both races before the start of Race 2.
“However we miscalculated the requirements. As we are a one-team championship all the drivers were unfortunately affected.”
Surely the most bizarre timesheet for a race I have seen - from yesterday’s F4 SEA event where nobody finished 😅 pic.twitter.com/2wt2zo3BsN
— Luke Smith (@LukeSmithF1) October 1, 2017
I ve just watched the first race of my life where not one single car finished the race. YES!
— Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) September 30, 2017
As a result of the mistake, the final classification was taken at the end of Lap 5, with Singapore’s Danial Frost being declared the winner.