Markus Laitala became Formula Academy Finland champion at Motorpark Raceway after taking another two wins.
Rain and hail hammered the weekend, which had the Formula 4 cars sharing the grid with other types of single-seaters.
Laitala took pole by nearly a second in qualifying from Formula 3 driver Juha Fred, with F4 South East Asia leader Elias Seppanen and F4 SMP regular Nikita Alexandrov filling the second row.
With rain continuing into the races, it made overtaking difficult around the narrow circuit due to the excessive spray. This helped Laitala ease off into the distance, winning by eight seconds from Seppanen.
Alexandrov completed the podium, with Mika Salo’s son Max finishing fourth. Finishing the race in fifth was Sami Lintunen, in a Dallara F394.
Seppanen was beaten off the line in race two by Alexandrov, and as the pair disputed second place it enabled Laitala to pull away once again. He ended up winning by 11.649s, with Alexandrov pipping Seppanen to second.
Salo was once again fourth, with former British F4 racer Paavo Tonteri’s father Risto taking fifth in another old car.
Glenn van Berlo was the form driver in Spanish F4’s visit to Jerez, topping free practice, qualifying and then beat team-mate Tijmen van der Helm to win race one. Killian Meyer completed the podium, edging title rival Franco Colapinto to the position.
Van Berlo started from the front again in race two, and took another win as Meyer beat Colapinto to second place. The closing gap between the pair in the title race was undone in race three, with championship leader Colapinto starting from pole.
A poor start by van der Helm meant van Berlo rose to second and hounded Colapinto through the race. It was missed opportunity for Meyer, another to make a poor start and compounded to a fourth place finish behind Axel Gnos.
With six races to go, Fernando Alonso protege Colapinto leads Meyer by 32 points, with three other drivers in title contention.
Results round-up?[pole in bold, fastest lap in italics]
| Finland | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (8 laps) | Race 2 (8 laps) | |
| 1 Markus Laitala 13m28.134s 2 Elias Seppanen +8.897s 3 Nikita Alexandrov +23.507s 4 Max Salo +1m05.374s 5 Sami Lintunen +1m09.102s |
1 Laitala 13m48.033s 2 Alexandrov +11.649s 3 Seppanen +12.066s 4 Salo +28.720s 5 Risto Tonteri +1m07.822s |
|
| Standings 1 Laitala 193? ?2 Alexandrov 123? ?3 Seppanen 93? ?4 Salo 72? ?5 Nestori Virtala 68 | ||
| Spain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (16 laps) | Race 2 (12 laps) | Race 3 (16 laps) |
| 1 Glenn van Berlo 28m06.005s 2 Tijmen van der Helm +0.735s 3 Killian Meyer +15.157s 4 Franco Colapinto +16.094s 5 Ivan Nosov +23.238s |
1 van Berlo 21m04.776s 2 Meyer +3.879s 3 Colapinto +5.164s 4 van der Helm +5.707s 5 Nicolas Baert +11.414s |
1 Colapinto 28m10.387s 2 van Berlo +1.038s 3 Axel Gnos +7.221s 4 Killian Meyer +8.110s 5 Rashed Ghanem +10.086s |
| Standings?1 Colapinto 202? ?2 Meyer 170? ?3 van Berlo 145? ?4 van der Helm 112? ?5 Shihab Al Habsi 89 | ||