The 2024 Spanish F4 season opened with success for Rodin Motorsport, as their rookie line up of Thomas Strauven, Peter Bouzinelos and Preston Lambert hit the ground running in Jarama, Spain. After a strong stint of pre-season tests for the team, all signs pointed in the right direction for the Farnham-based outfit, which saw a debut podium and a win for Strauven, and strong points finishes for Bouzinelos.
Both Free Practice sessions saw strong stints for the team who looked to gain as much knowledge of the 3.85 mile circuit. Times were tight in the opening practice session, with the top 20 well all within a second of one another. Free Practice two saw a strong showing from Strauven, finishing quickest in the session and buoying his confidence heading into qualifying. Elsewhere Bouzinelos narrowly missed out on the top ten in FP2, just a few hundredths adrift of the cars ahead, but showing plenty of potential.
Qualifying one was incredibly strong for both Strauven and Bouzinelos, who ended the session in third and fifth respectively. Times were once again tight amongst the vast grid of 35 entries, with the top 28 cars being separated by just a second. In Qualifying two, Strauven continued to show his pace, ending the session in the top ten once again, whilst Bouzinelos and Lambert ended the session in P13 and P18 respectively, leaving the door of opportunity in the races wide open.
In his debut race in Spanish F4, Strauven held firm to round out the podium in Race 1 and claimed the fastest lap on his way. Starting fifth, Bouzinelos showed his potential, leap-frogging one position to round out his first race in the series in fourth. Teammate Preston Lambert did well to keep himself out of trouble on the busy grid, ending the race in P17.
Heading into Race two buoyed by the strong team performance so far, the rookie Strauven commanded a strong lights to flag victory and built a nearly one-second gap to the car behind in second. Strauven capitalised on a retirement from previous race winner Lucas Fluxá to close the gap in the championship at this early stage. Elsewhere, Bouzinelos claimed another strong points finish in fifth, while Lambert claimed his weekend-best finish in P14.
Heading into the final race of the weekend, Bouzinelos' assault came to a nearly conclusion on lap five, forcing him to retire the car. The 35-strong grid saw a chaotic 12-lap race around Jarama, with Strauven being the only Rodin Motorsport driver able to salvage a points finish in tenth amidst the chaos.
Spanish F4 returns to action in June, heading across the border to Portugal's Portimao Circuit in the Algarve.
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