Home Formula 4Danish F4 F4 round-up: David dominates at Sepang, Jakobson jumps ahead in Denmark, Laitala leads in Finland

F4 round-up: David dominates at Sepang, Jakobson jumps ahead in Denmark, Laitala leads in Finland

by Tim Lumb

Hadrien David dominated at on his return to Formula 4 South East Asia, winning three of the four races at Sepang while Elias Seppanen extended his points lead.

David contested the 2019 season opener at Sepang and won three times. The Frenchman did even better on his return, as he took pole position for races one and four, as well as winning the first three races of the weekend.

He lost the lead of race four to eventual winner Josh Smith – who missed the two most recent Madras rounds – on lap three of nine, but he still came home in second place after holding off Seppanen’s title rival Lucca Allen.

Allen finished on the podium twice, once more than Seppanen, but a retirement in race three for the Irishman meant that Seppanen was able to extend his championship lead to 14 points.

Shibab Al-Habsi and Muizz Musyaffa were the two other drivers to finish on the podium over the weekend. Al-Habsi took third place on a wet track in race three but was behind Musyaffa – who also came home second in race two – at the chequered flag.

The championship standings for the top five remain unchanged, with French F4 leader David moving up to seventh.

In Denmark, Malthe Jakobsen took over the points lead in the national championship from Jonas Lindhard Nielsen after winning all three races.

Jakobsen took pole at Padborg Park by just 0.032 seconds, but proceeded to dominate proceedings and take the points lead despite missing the season opener, held at the same circuit.

Although Nielsen missed out on a podium position after being far off Mikkel Grundtvig, he managed to rebound to finish second in race two and third in race three.

Valdemar Eriksen was close to beating Jakobsen to pole and was less than a second away at the chequered flag for race three. He also finished in second place in race one.

Juha Fred relived his younger days in the Formula Academy Finland round at Kemora, taking his Formula Ford car to a pole and win.

The Finn, who raced in the country’s previous F4 championship last century, only lasted a lap in the wet first race before retiring from pole.

Markus Laitala took a dominant victory, with Jimi Hannus and Nikita Alexandrov the only other drivers left on the lead lap. Fred struck back by bettering Laitala in sunny conditions in race two, but the latter extended his points lead as the top FAF entrant.

 

Results round-up?[pole in bold, fastest lap in italics]

South East Asia
Race 1 (9 laps) Race 2 (9 laps)
1?Hadrian David 20m11.721s
2 Josh Smith +4.218s
3 Elias Seppanen +7.983s
4 Lucca Allen +8.412s
5?Muiz Musyaffa +9.131s
1?David 21m52.487s
2 Musyaffa +0.579s
3 Allen +6.614s
4 Smith +7.145s
5 Seppanen +7.418s
Race 3 (8 laps) Race 4 (9 laps)
1?David 20m33.303s
2 Musyaffa +11.344s
3 Shibab Al Habsi +17.639s
4 Seppanen +18.435s
5 Frederico Peters +23.218s
1?Smith 20m20.417s
2 David +3.196s
3 Allen +3.683s
4 Seppanen +4.593s
5 Al Habsi +4.841s
Standings?1 Seppanen 446? ?2 Allen 432? ?3 Al Habsi 338? ?4 Smith 303? 5 Musyaffa 281
Denmark
Race 1 (16 laps) Race 2 (14 laps) Race 3 (16 laps)
1?Malthe Jakobsen 16m19.508s
2 Valdemar Eriksen +2.686s
3?Mikkel Grundtvig +3.724s
4 Jonas Lindhard Nielsen +16.430s
5 Mads Hoe +19.179s
1 Jakobsen 16m11.592s
2?Nielsen +3.171s
3 Largim Ali +4.029s
4?Eriksen +10.600s
5?Lucas Ditlev Daugaard +12.937s
1?Jakobsen 16m24.896s
2?Eriksen +0.975s
3?Nielsen +5.177s
4 Grundtvig +5.787s
5?Hoe +15.464s
Standings?1 Jakobsen 276? ?2 Nielsen 246? ?3 Eriksen 185? ?4 Hoe 168 ? 5 Daugaard / Grundtvig 126
Finland
Race 1 (24 laps) Race 2 (24 laps)
1 Markus Laitala 26m51.812s
2 Jimi Hannus +18.318s
3 Nikita Alexandrov +22.781s
4 Jussi?Kuivakangas +1 lap
5 Nestori Virtala +1 lap
1 Juha Fred 26m50.516s
2 Laitala +1.532s
3 Hannus +8.639s
4 Alexandrov +25.486s
5 Max Salo +38.781s
Standings?1 Laitala 143? ?2 Alexandrov 90? ?3 Elias Seppanen 60? ?4 Hannus 54? ?5 Virtala 50