At 16 years old, the Barcelonian driver has achieved the first two consecutive victories in his debut season this past Sunday, in the fourth round of the F4 Spanish Championship.
At the Alcañiz track, the Campos Racing driver also added a third place and two pole positions.
“I am very happy with how everything has turned out. We needed a weekend in which things would go well for us, because we have always been fast, but unfortunately we had not achieved the results we wanted”.
The turning point for Pepe Martí has arrived. The 16-year-old from Barcelona needed a meeting clean of problems and setbacks to shape his great potential, and that day finally arrived. After three weekends in which he alternated a couple of podiums with other less striking results due to different circumstances, this past Sunday he set his best performance of the season. It was in the fourth round of the F4 Spanish Championship, at the Motorland Aragón de Alcañiz circuit, after winning in two races and finishing third in the other.
A well-deserved 55-point loot - out of 65 possible - that propels the Campos Racing driver to the fourth position, just 11 behind the second with a team that has the support of Auser, Renault and Dacia's official dealer and workshop of the Movento group, to promote young talent.
Martí was this satisfied with his first championship wins in his debut season: “I'm very happy with how everything turned out. We really needed a weekend where things went well for us, because we have always been fast, but unfortunately, we had not yet achieved the results we wanted. In the end they have arrived, and now it is time to continue working, because there are still three rounds left”.
The Motorland meeting started in a chaotic way due to a sudden rainstorm that flooded the track and forced the postponement of the first of the three races - scheduled for Saturday afternoon - to early Sunday. Oblivious to the change of schedule, Pepe Martí started from third position with used wheels to reserve the two new sets for the other two races. At the start he managed to win the position to Vladislav Ryabov to place second, but the Russian took advantage of his new tires to return the overtaking. The Spaniard could no longer attack and had to settle for managing his tires, which lost effectiveness lap after lap, until he crossed the finish line on a meritorious third step of the podium.
The second test on Sunday was run a few hours later and was a key moment for Marti. Due to the rescheduling of the track activity due to the rain on Saturday, the organization decided to suspend the second qualifying session, which determines the starting order of the third round. Instead, it was agreed that the best lap of each driver in race 2 - the shortest of the three with a duration of 18 minutes plus one lap - would serve to establish the order of the third and last test of the Teruel meeting. That was where Pepe Martí cemented his triumph. From pole position he started with new tires, like all of them, to print a strong rhythm from the beginning. The Catalan set the fastest lap in the second lap, improved it in the third and even lowered it in the fourth until he set the reference time at 1: 51.481. Behind, no one was able to catch him, finishing with a 4.1 second margin over Dilano Van’t Hoff, placed in second.
The Barcelonian's first victory this season did not stop there. In Alcañiz's third and final race, starting once again from pole position, he dominated from start to finish unopposed. He managed his tires effectively succeeding to avoid degradation and took advantage of the struggles behind him for second and third position to establish a comfortable distance that allowed him to claim his second consecutive target, this time with 4.9 seconds over Daniel Macia.
After a fourth meeting that has succeeded in his interest, Pepe Martí will wait for the fifth round of the season, which will be after the summer break on September 18 and 19 at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, to try to repeat the success of this past weekend.
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