2017 F4 SMP NEZ Championship – Victory to Puhakka

Juuso Puhakka Flies to Victory in Race 1

Qualifying 2 and Race 1 took place in sunny Smolensk on Saturday. Yesterday’s sessions showed much smaller gaps than in Sochi on this short 3,357 kilometer track. Lukas Dunner had to withdraw from the rest of the weekend when he hurt his knee after his crash in Q1.

Qualifying 2

Sami-Matti Trogen, AKK Academy: “It was a great qualifying and I was very happy with my lap although I made a little mistake. It is my first year in formulas and I have not been doing any go-kart before, so I am learning every minute I am on track. From P8 the good points finish is possible.”

Saturday started with Qualifying 2 as early as 9.10 A.M. After Tuomas Haapalainen qualified in P6 yesterday, he showed no signs of fatigue and took pole position with a lap time of 1:26.849 beating Christian Lundgaard by a thousand.. Yesterday’s fastest driver Xavier Lloveras will start Race 3 from P3 losing out to the Finn by just under 5 hundredths. SMP Racing Alexander Smolyar took P4 and after a great Friday Juuso Puhakka set the fifth best lap. Dutch Bent Viscaal drove to a solid P6 before Russian Mike Belov. Sami-Matti Trogen, Jan-Erik Meikup and Vladimir Tziotrtzis completed top ten. Guillem Pujeu and Elias Niskanen had problems with their cars and they’ll have to start Race 3 from the back of the grid.

Qualifying 2 results

1. T. Haapalainen 1.26,849 (AKK Academy)

C. Lundgaard + 0.001 (MP Motorsport)
X. Lloveras +0.048 (FA Racing)
A. Smolyar +0.283 (SMP Racing)
J. Puhakka +0.287 (Lappalainen Racing)
B. Viscaal +0.343 (MP Motorsport)
S-M.Trogen +0.818 (AKK Academy)
J-E. Meikup +0.858 (ALM Motorsport)
V. Tziortzis +0.946 (SMP Racing)
N. Volegov +1.043 (SMP Racing)
I. Berets +1.244 (SMP Racing)
M. Ponomarenko +1.722 (SMP Racing)
J. Peters +1.880 (MP Motorsport)
G. Abdullayev +2.782 (SMP Racing)
E. Niskanen +3.245 (AKK Academy)

Not classified

G. Pujeu (FA Racing)

Race 1

Juuso Puhakka, Lappalainen Racing: “The race was easier than I expected after I got to the lead at the start. All in all I’m feeling very happy at the moment.”

Xavier Lloveras, FA Racing: “I stalled at the start but I had very good pace throughout the whole race and actually P4 is quite good for the championship.”

Tuomas Haapalainen, AKK Academy: “I got a good start but someone pushed me wide. I was P4 when I hit Volegov during the final lap so that spoiled my race.”

Nikita Volegov, SMP Racing: “I was at P3 almost the whole race after getting a good start. At the start of the final lap Haapalainen hit me from behind and I dropped down to P5.”

The race started in a dramatic fashion with pole sitter Lloveras stalling on the grid and dropping to the back end of the field. Puhakka took control of the race immediately by jumping onto P1 at the start and did not let anyone catch him. The Finn drove to his first race victory of the season but the gap in the end was just under a second to Lundgaard. Danish MP Motorsport driver managed to extend his championship lead to seven points after Lloveras drove his FA Racing car to an excellent P4 after charging almost through the hole field. There was drama also in the final lap of the race when Tuomas Haapalainen and Nikita Volegov collided at turn 1 while fighting for P3. That was the occasion Russian Smolyar took, to rose to the podium with Puhakka and Lundgaard. Volegov dropped down to P5 and Haapalainen finished P11 after being handed a 10-second penalty after the race. Tziortzis finished P6 while Meikup and Viscaal had a drag race from the final corner to the finish line with Estonian driver edging Viscaal by eight hundredths of a second. Belov finished P9 and Trogen took his first point of the season with P10.

Tomorrow there will be two more races with Race 2 starting at 10:05 and Race 3 at 16:20. Let’s hope that it will be as thrilling as it was today, with LIVE retransmission on SMP F4 NEZ Championship Facebook page !