Photo: Danish F4
Joshua Car dominated at Virginia International Raceway to extend his lead in the United States Formula 4 championship.
French F4 driver Nicky Hays made his championship debut with DC Autosport, and former USF2000 competitor Michael d?Orlando also joined the grid with Velocity Racing Development.
In qualifying, the top eight was covered by less than one second with Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport?s Arthur Leist taking pole position, 0.368 seconds ahead of Jay Howard Driver Development?s Christian Brooks.
Car was in the lead from fifth on the grid by the third lap of race one, but the safety car was soon deployed after an incident for debutant Sicheng Li. The race then ended behind the safety car after another incident for the Chinese rookie, giving Car a third win of the season ahead of Jose Blanco-Chock (Crosslink/Kiwi) and Kiko Porto (DEForce Racing).
Blanco-Chock started race two from pole ahead of Leist, with Car starting fourth. Brooks dived into the lead from second on the grid, but was quickly overhauled by Blanco-Chock. Both Dylan Tavella and David Porcelli became beached after going off at Turn 4, which led to a full course yellow.
Leist took the lead on the restart while a three-way battle erupted between Car, Brooks and Blanco-Chock for second. Leist set a number of fastest laps to extend his advantage to over a second, but another FCY closed the field up and Car snatched the lead from his Crosslink/Kiwi team-mate on the restart.
As Blanco-Chock fell down the order, Leist reclaimed the lead from Car to win by 0.446 seconds, with Brooks taking third.
Race three was high in attrition, as Brooks held off Car to take his first US F4 win – helped by a FCY on the final lap.
Danish F4 made its first ever visit to Sweden at the Kinnekulle Ring, with Lindhard Motorsport?s Jonas Lindhard Nielsen maintaining his 16-point advantage in the championship.
Poleman Malthe Jakobsen dominated race one, with Valdemar Eriksen and Nielsen completing a spread-out podium.
Jakobsen?s Team FSP team-mate and rookie Largim Ali retired after six laps, and was then unable to compete in the next two races.
In race two it was a switch of positions for Nielsen and Jakobsen, with Nielsen defeating Eriksen by 4.998s. The final race was a much closer affair, with Jakobsen fending off Eriksen by 0.192s, and Nielsen completed a hat trick of fastest laps in third place.
Lucas Daugaard was the dominant winner in the F4 Light class, with three sixth place finishes.
Results round-up [pole in bold, fastest lap in italics]
| United States | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (12 laps) | Race 2 (12 laps) | Race 3 (14 laps) |
| 1 Joshua Car 32m6.466s 2 Jose Blanco +2.363s 3 Kiko Porto +3.213s 4 Arthur Leist +3.940s 5 Teddy Wilson +5.033s |
1 Leist 31m28.298s 2 Car +0.446s 3 Brooks +2.177s 4 Porto +3.366s 5?Guilherme Peixoto +3.959s |
1 Brooks 33m37.654s 2 Car +0.436s 3 Leist +1.244s 4?Dante Yu +1.820s 5?Michael d’Orlando +2.643s |
| Standings?1 Car 174? ?2 Porto 134? ?3 Leist 116? ?4 Brooks 94? ?5 Blanco 92 | ||
| Denmark | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (25 laps) | Race 2 (25 laps) | Race 3 (25 laps) |
| 1 Malthe Jakobsen 21m36.591s 2 Valdemar Eriksen +4.984s 3?Jonas Lindhard Nielsen +8.480s 4 Casper Pilgaard +10.965s 5 Christoffer Christensen +33.669s |
1 Nielsen 21m42.025s 2?Eriksen +4.998s 3 Jakobsen +6.395s 4?Christensen +19.226s 5?Pilgaard +23.529s |
1?Jakobsen 21m38.815s 2?Eriksen +0.192s 3 Nielsen +1.634s 4 Mads Hoe +12.663s 5?Pilgaard +16.201s |
| Standings?1 Nielsen 201? ?2 Jakobsen 185? ?3 Hoe 148? ?4?Eriksen 137? ?5 Daugaard 116 | ||