Photo: SMP Racing
Markus Laitala won both Formula Academy Finland races at Alastaro, where the grid was joined by the final round of Formula 4 SMP.
As with previous FAcademy Finland rounds, there were also other classes of machinery on track with the F4 cars, but the focus was on the destination of the SMP title.
Finnish champion Laitala kicked off the weekend with pole, heading SMP leader Pavel Bulantsev by 0.166 seconds.
Both got away cleanly at the start, but a multi-car crash led to the safety car being called out. Laitala once again looked untroubled up front, as a quartet of SMP drivers battled behind him.
Their squabbled was decided on the last lap, with Artem Lobanenko beating Bulantsev to the finish line by 0.186s. Lobanenko’s pass for second place wasn’t enough to keep the title fight going though, with Bulantsev being crowned champion.
The second race followed a similar pattern, sans the safety car, with Laitala dominating and Lobanenko pipping Bulanstev to second place.
Malthe Jakobsen strengthened his grip on the Danish F4 title at Ring Djursland, despite nearly going winless at the circuit.
Valdemark Eriksen outraced Jakobsen to victory in the first race of the weekend, with Jakobsen almost coming under pressure from Largim Ali for second place.
In the reversed grid race two it was Mads Hoe he had to contend with in close battle. Hoe was rapid at the start, but a clash between two F4 Lights drivers meant the safety car was called out and Jakobsen was brought onto his gearbox. Jakobsen could never quite force a move, not helped by frequently having to look in his mirrors too, and Hoe won by half a second.
Jakobsen started from pole for race three, and won by 0.359s after a race-long defence over Eriksen. Despite Niels Ejnar Rytter losing a wheel and spinning off, the the race was uninterrupted.
Honda Formula Dream Project’s Ren Sato won the Japanese F4 title with three races to spare at Sugo, as team-mate and title rival Kakunoshin Ohta had a pointless weekend.
Sato took his eighth and ninth wins of the season, with a double pole and two second places bringing other team-mate Atsushi Miyake up to second in the standings.
Results round-up?[pole in bold, fastest lap in italics]
| Finland/SMP | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (8 laps) | Race 2 (21 laps) | |
| 1 Markus Laitala 26m26.603s 2 Artem Lobanenko +5.302s 3 Pavel Bulantsev +5.488s 4 Ivan Nosov +12.492s 5 Alexey Nesov +12.623s |
1 Laitala 26m18.419s 2 Lobanenko +5.881s 3 Bulantsev +6.166s 4 Nesov +6.357s 5 Nosov +9.049s |
|
| FAcademy Finland Standings 1 Laitala 243? ?2 Nikita Alexandrov 159? ?3 Elias Seppanen 123? ?4 Max Salo 94? ?5 Nestori Virtala 86 SMP Standings 1 Bulantsev 254? ?2 Lobanenko 224? ?3 Nesov 204? ?4 Alexandrov 151? ?5 Alexander Vilaev 147 |
||
| Denmark | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (31 laps) | Race 2 (17 laps) | Race 3 (19 laps) |
| 1 Valdemar Eriksen 26m21.633s 2 Malthe Jakobsen +4.749s 3 Largim Ali +5.250s 4 Lucas Daugaard +12.929s 5 Mads Hoe +17.651s |
1 Hoe 16m09.899s 2 Jakobsen +0.540s 3 Ali +0.812s 4 Eriksen +1.092s 5 Jonas Lindhard Nielsen +1.416s |
1 Jakobsen 16m12.161s 2 Eriksen +0.359s 3 Ali +3.190s 4 Hoe +6.223s 5 Nielsen +6.435s |
| Standings 1 Jakobsen 383? ?2 Nielsen 315? ?3 Hoe 251? ?4 Eriksen 240? ?5 Ali 225 | ||
| Japan | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (17 laps) | Race 2 (17 laps) | |
| 1 Ren Sato 28m13.541s 2 Atsushi Miyake +0.573s 3 Kohta Kawaai +1.563s 4 Reiji Hiraki +1.716s 5 Hibiki Taira +3.769s |
1 Sato 27m26.887s 2 Miyake +2.476s 3 Taira +4.453s 4 Seita Nonaka +5.005s 5 Hiraki +5.027s |
|
| Standings 1 Sato 261? ?2 Miyake 130? ?3 Suganami 128? ?4 Ohta 115? ?5 Kawaai 113 | ||