Hectic Saturday in Ahvenisto

Saturday saw one qualifying and two races taking place. Sunshine welcomed the teams and drivers in Ahvenisto as Q1 started as early as 9.00.

 

Qualifying 1

The first qualifying session of the weekend started in chilly but sunny conditions. The lap times dropped every lap until the end of Q1 when Elias Niskanen crashed his car and the session was first red-flagged and eventually stopped.

Just then Christian Lundgaard was shown in first place but his efforts were undone as stewards disqualified him because the Dane set his fastest lap under the red flag. The same fate awaited Juuso Puhakka and Tuomas Haapalainen who also were demoted to the back of the grid.

That meant that pole position went to Sami-Matti Trogen, the youngest driver in this 2017 season. Bent Viscaal finished P2 and Alexander Smolyar lined up in P3 for Race 1. Nikita Volegov and Mike Belov followed the great showing from the Russians with P4 and P5 respectively.

Despite his crash Niskanen managed to get P6 ahead of championship leader Xavier Lloveras. Jan-Erik Meikup, Lukas Dunner and Guillem Pujeu completed the top ten.

 

Qualifying 1 Results:

1.     Sami-Matti Trogen 1:14.554

2.     Bent Viscaal +0.129

3.     Alexander Smolyar +0.217

4.     Nikita Volegov +0.306

5.     Michael Belov +0.374

6.     Elias Niskanen +0.433

7.     Xavier Lloveras +0.581

8.     Jan-Erik Meikup +0.624

9.     Lukas Dunner +0.870

10.     Guillem Pujeu +1.411

11.     Ivan Berets +1.477

12.     Vladimir Tziortzis +1.559

13.     Sten Piirimagi +1.859

14.     John Peters +1.900

15.     Roman Lebedev +2.986

 

No Time Set

Gulhuseyn Abdullayev

 

Disqualified

Christian Lundgaard

Juuso Puhakka

Tuomas Haapalainen

 

Race 1

Pole sitter Trogen did not get the perfect getaway and dropped down to P8 at the start. Viscaal took advantage of it and cruised to a brilliant victory, his first of the season. He was kept on his toes though as Volegov, Smolyar and Belov chased him down the whole race, but with Ahvenisto being very technical track there was no chance the Ddutchman was going to be overtaken.

Meikup finished P5 after holding up Lloveras and Lundgaard. The Dane made a great recovery from P17 and lost only two points to Lloveras in the championship. Trogen came home in P8 and his fellow countrymen Niskanen and Puhakka managed to get points in front of the home crowd. Lukas Dunner was P4 in the early stages of the race but he went straight to the wall after clipping a kerb.

 

Race 1 Results

1.     Bent Viscaal 21 Laps 26:31.082

2.     Nikita Volegov +0.440

3.     Alexander Smolyar +0.925

4.     Michael Belov +1.383

5.     Jan-Erik Meikup +11.272

6.     Xavier Lloveras +11.845

7.     Christian Lundgaard +12.857

8.     Sami-Matti Trogen +13.236

9.     Elias Niskanen +14.918

10.     Juuso Puhakka +15.335

11.     Tuomas Haapalainen +16.838

12.     Ivan Berets +26.343

13.     Sten Piirimagi +26.834

14.     Roman Lebedev +38.071

15.     John Peters +38.369

16.     Vladimir Tziortzis +38.714

17.     Gulhuseyn Abdullayev +42.746

18.     Guillem Pujeu +43.374

 

Did Not Finish

Lukas Dunner

 

Race 2

Sami-Matti Trogen, AKK Academy: “After a bad start the race went well. My pace improved towards the end because my tires warmed up. I don’t know if it would have still been enough to keep Volegov behind should I have got a better start.”

Race 2 brought its fair lot of drama. Again Trogen did not get the best start but he lost only one position to Volegov. The Russian did not look back and took his second win of the season. Trogen followed Volegov home in P2 and Smolyar took his second P3 of the day. In the first laps of the race, Viscaal and Dunner were fighting for P4 but they ended up crashing, taking both MP Motorsport drivers out of the race. Belov took advantage of their accident and finished P4. Puhakka managed to make a magnificent comeback from P18 to P5 and collected six important points for the championship. Lloveras extended his lead in the championship to eight points to Lundgaard who finished just behind the Spaniard. Estonian Meikup snatched one point from the race after having again to defend from the drivers behind, this time Tziortzis and Haapalainen. After crashing out in Q1, Niskanen did not finish the race due to a technical issue.

Sunday in Ahvenisto will start with Q2 at 9.00 and weekend-ending Race 3 at 12.30. After a dramatic day, we shall see an interesting one tomorrow.

 

Race 2 Results

1.     Nikita Volegov 20:20.982

2.     Sami-Matti Trogen +4.036

3.     Alexander Smolyar +6.244

4.     Michael Belov +6.613

5.     Juuso Puhakka +12.902

6.     Xavier Lloveras +14.414

7.     Christian Lundgaard +14.941

8.     Jan-Erik Meikup +17.103

9.     Vladimir Tziortzis +17.498

10.     Tuomas Haapalainen +17.873

11.     Ivan Berets +18.242

12.     Sten Piirimagi +18.566

13.     John Peters +30.257

14.     Roman Lebedev +30.855

15.     Guillem Pujeu +31.108

16.     Gulhuseyn Abdullayev +33.629

 

Did Not Finish

Elias Niskanen

Lukas Dunner

Bent Viscaal