2017 F4 SMP NEZ Championship – Ahvenisto Off to a Cold Start

Freezing Start to the Weekend

After a sunny and quite warm weekend in Smolensk, the weather was cold and rainy when the SMP F4 NEZ Championship arrived in Finland. Temperatures were under 10 degrees as the drivers started their preparations for Round 3.

With a gap of four points only, the championship leader can change again this weekend, between Xavier Lloveras, who already got experience on Ahvenisto, and Rookies Christian Lundgaard and Alexander Smolyar. But let’s not forget the Finns here, who are going to fight for an home-country-glory!

Free Practice 1

John Peters, MP Motorsport: “Ahvenisto is a very difficult track, especially if the weather is like this. There are lot of high-speed corners and you need a lot of guts here.”

Tuomas Haapalainen, AKK Academy: “The practice sessions went well although I had a minor problems with the engine but it was fixed. Ahvenisto is a very cool track but very tight and tough at the same time. I think it’s the hardest track on our calendar.”

Smolensk Race 3 winner, Tuomas Haapalainen, started the weekend being the fastest driver in FP1, with a time of 1:15.035. Christian Lundgaard trailed him by 0.078” and ended P2. Finnish drivers seemed to enjoy driving at their home country with Juuso Puhakka and Elias Niskanen starting the weekend in P3 and P4 respectively. Alexander Smolyar was P5 and championship leader Xavier Lloveras P6 losing 0.460’’ to Haapalainen.

The session was red flagged when Sten Piirimagi spun to gravel. ALM Motorsport driver did not damaged his car too badly but he was not able to return to the track. Mike Belov and Guillem Pujeu experienced also a few difficulties on the tricky Finnish circuit.

Free Practice 1 results

1. T. Haapalainen 1.15.035

C. Lundgaard +0.078
J. Puhakka +0.162
E. Niskanen +0.268
A. Smolyar +0.376
X. Lloveras +0.460
N. Volegov +0.505
V. Tziortzis +0.612
B. Viscaal +0.912
S-M. Trogen +0.982
L. Dunner +1.268
J-E. Meikup +1.366
R. Lebedev +1.602
M. Belov +1.792
I. Berets +1.973
G.Pujeu +2.055
M. Ponomarenko +2.877
J. Peters +2.927
G. Abdullayev +3.080
S. Piirimagi +17.764

Free Practie 2

Sten Piirimagi, ALM Motorsport: “I had difficulties today. At the start of the day I was too overconfident and crashed. I tried to gain my confidence back during FP2. Fortunately, the accident did not damaged my car too badly.”

The weather conditions did not change before FP2 kick off. Lundgaard improved his pace and set a time of 1:14.126. It was enough to put him on top of the timesheets. His rival Lloveras was P2 and only 0.008 slower than the Dane, which is promising an interesting battle for the championship this weekend. Smolyar was third fastest in FP2 with Puhakka, Haapalainen and Niskanen closely behind. Nikita Volegov and Vladimir Tziortzis completed the top 8. Milen Ponomarenko had a big crash at the chequered flag, and is out for rest of the weekend.

Tomorrow’s action starts at 9.00 with Qualifying 2. Race 1 and 2 starts at 12.40 and 16.50 (UTC+3). Let’s hope the temperatures will rise for tomorrow and that the sun will be shining for these two remaining days of competition !