Tuomas Tujula Shines in Zandvoort Race 1

Saturday in Zandvoort started with qualifying. In the morning, the weather looked unstable and occasionally it turned windy and rainy. Before the session the atmosphere was buzzing and the drivers wanted to hit the track! The question was, whether to use Hankook Ventus F200 slicks or wet tyres, given the uncertain skies. Luckily at the end, the sun had the upper hand. The 2016 SMP F4 NEZ Championship certified by FIA has changed its regulations for its second season and the weekend now features two fifteen-minute qualifying sessions to give drivers another chance on Sunday.

It was Richard Verschoor who snatched the third pole position of the season, the second for the Dutch driver, in 1:39.373. He was followed by fellow countryman Jarno Opmeer in 1:39.419 and Tuomas Tujula in 1:39.517. A very strong performance was Nikita Volegov’s for his first qualifying ever in single-seater, the young Russian managing to secure P6.

”I am really happy about this second pole position. I have worked hard to improve my starts and I hope it will pay off for the coming race,” commented Richard Verschoor.

As the drivers got ready for the race, the rain decided to stay away and the drivers got to drive on a dry track. The start was clean and the pole sitter, Richard Verschoor led the pack through the first lap, with Tuomas Tujula up to P2, while Jarno Opmeer was passed by Juho Valtanen and dropped to P4.

On the fifth lap of the 25 minutes + 1 lap, Gleb Zotov completed a Drive Through by crashing at the pitlane exit, causing the Safety Car to be deployed. After two laps under the Safety Car the race was restarted and Finn Tujula had a good restart, taking the opportunity when Richard Verschoor made a mistake. The Finn was the new leader of the race with five minutes left on the clock when another accident happened, causing the second  Safety Car as Henri Kauppi beached his car in the gravel. With only one lap remaining, Tuomas Tujula felt the young Red Bull Junior Driver pressuring him but did not flinch. Behind him an unfortunate Rasmus Markkanen had a fantastic restart, holding onto P4 by passing Juho Valtanen, but then tried a move on Jarno Opmeer which failed and forced him to retire.

Xavier Lloveras was the most unlucky driver today as a mechanical failure forced him to retire after the first restart, while Vartanyan, Kroes and Tziortzis took advantage of his bad luck.

”I’m quite satisfied with today’s results but we need to keep working since the Dutch are quite fast too. The last laps before the safety car Richard was really close, but luckily did not have enough time to try a move on me”, commented Race Winner Tujula.

”I’m not satisfied with the outcome of today. I made quite a big mistake after the first safety car. I locked up in the first corner”, reported Richard Verschoor.

”My start was pretty good. The most interesting part of my race was the first restart, this is when I snatched P3 from Juho Valtanen”, commented Jarno Opmeer.

”Today’s race was not okay since I started from P12. It was quite a clear race but I still don’t like that because of my result. I should’ve been P6 or P5 because I had the speed. Tomorrow I’ll try to do a better start than today and I’ll try to be in top 5 or even top 3”, said Nikita Sitnikov.

Tomorrow Qualifying 2 starts at 09:00, while Race 2 kicks off at 14:15 and Race 3 at 17:35.

 

Qualifying Results

P1 R. Verschoor

P2 J. Opmeer

P3. T. Tujula

4 J. Valtanen

5 X. Lloveras

6 N. Volegov

7 Rasmus Markkanen

8 D. Kroes

9 V. Tziortzis

10 A. Vartanyan

11 Roope Markkanen

12 N. Sitkinov

13 T. Haapalainen

14 A. Slutskiy

15 A. Maslennikov

16 Z. Slutskiy

17 G. Zotov

18 A. Petrov

19 H. Kauppi

20 R. Lebedev

 

Results Race 1

P1 T. Tujula

P2 R. Verschoor

P3 J. Opmeer

P4 J. Valtanen

P5 A. Vartanyan

P6 D.  Kroes

P7 V. Tziortzis

P8 Roope Markkanen

P9 N. Sitkinov

P10 A. Slutskiy

P11 N. Volegov

P12 T. Haapalainen

P13 Z. Slutskiy

P14 A. Petrov

P15 A. Maslennikov

P16 R. Markkanen DNF

P17 R. Lebedev DNF

P18 H. Kauppi DNF

P19 X. Lloveras

P20 G. Zotov