Bianca Bustamante finishes 35th in points in Dubai F4

MANILA, Philippines – Bianca Bustamante finished her first ever race weekend with Italian racing team Prema, with a best finish of 26th at the Dubai Autodome in the United Arab Emirates. She currently sits 35th in the Formula 4 UAE Championship Driver Standings after three races.

The 17-year-old Filipina could have finished in the 20s as she finished P26 in the first round of the qualifiers and P28 in the second round. Unfortunately, she did not finish in the third round after her car was hit from behind in the opening lap and had to retire.

Bustamante’s final position in the 39-driver race was at 35th spot. 

Prema gave an outstanding account of themselves by winning the teams’ championship with 65 points. Although tied with the Mumbai Falcons with the same number of points, Prema’s American driver, Ugo Ugochukwu, won the driver’s championship by topping Races One and Two and finishing third in Race Three.

Prema’s third driver, Italian Nicola Lacorte, finished 15th overall but was seventh in the rookie’s race. 

“Not everything went our way this weekend but I learned so much from every single experience and I leave here a much stronger driver,” Bustamante penned in her Instagram account (@racebia). 

“Qualifying was a highlight for me as I was able to put down my best lap time of the entire weekend when it counted the most. Although it only landed me in P25, I got within 1.4 seconds of P1 and only missed the top by a few tenths.”

“The three races themselves were up and down in the results,” Bianca added. “I made some mistakes like stalling my start in race one which dropped me down in the order. It also gave me the chance to fight back from P36 to P26, which was really fun.” Race 2 saw some really big battles going from P34 to P28.”

Bustamante will take a week off before she heads to Kuwait for the next race.