Verschoor Tops Qualifying, Opmeer Wins Race 1
The SMP F4 Drivers were set to gain some fantastic experience, with Saturday’s attendance at Zandvoort expected to be around 30,000 people. The weather was fantastic for the spectators with the sun shining and no wind making the temperatures rise. For the drivers it was going to be a very tough and sweaty day of racing.
Saturday’s race day started with the first qualification session. The provisional pole position changed many times but in the end P1 was taken by the Dutchman Richard Verschoor just ahead of his countryman Jarno Opmeer and the Finnish racing twins Rasmus and Roope Markkanen who took P3 and P4. There was also a red flag towards the end of the session when Artem Petrov and Artem Slutskii made contact in T8, leading to Petrov having to retire from the session.
Between qualifying and Race 1 Red Bull Racing Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen did a promo session on track, driving the 2012 Formula 1 Championship winning car.
After the Verstappen drive was over it was time for the first race of the weekend.
Rasmus Markkanen made a fantastic start, jumping straight into the lead as Verschoor dropped to P7. A lap later, Jarno Opmeer overtook Markkanen for the lead and held the position all the way to the flag to take his fourth win of the season.
Red Bull Junior Driver Verschoor was now a man on a mission, overtaking each of his opponents in a series of swift moves at the end of the main straight, to end up 2nd.
The race was a clean one and for the first time this season the Safety Car wasn’t needed.
Even so Petrov ran into trouble in T9 as he tried to pull off an overtaking move, instead locking his tyres and straight-lining the corner, taking out young Tuomas Haapalainen in the process.
After the race the drivers had couple of hours to relax and look at the data from Race 1 before the second qualifying session started.
The weather had mow changed, with the wind getting up and clouds appearing, but for racing the weather was perfect. The battle for P1 again raged between the local heroes Verschoor and Opmeer. Ultimately pole went once again the way of Verschoor. In 3rd this time was Alexander Vartanyan. This session too had to be red-flagged when Zakhar Slutskii crashed out with 2:36 of the session still to run.
At the restart the drivers had time for one lap but no-one was able to improve and so the day came to an end. The drivers worked really hard and the conditions were demanding for them.
”The win was special for me, but it won’t change my racing style and it felt really good to win here,” said Opmeer.
”I was very concentrated on my lap and I made sure I didn’t make any mistakes and that was how I got the pole position,” commented Verschoor.
”It felt very good to get to the podium because I’ve had some problems in previous races and this is very important for the championship,” said Rasmus Markkanen.
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