Photo: SMP F4 Championship
SMP F4 frontrunner Niko Kari reigned supreme in the qualifying session at Sochi to claim pole position for the first and second races of the weekend.
The Finn was imperious, assuming the lead for good at halfway point and setting four different laps good enough for race one pole position.
Alexey Korneev was best of the rest in second, with Nikita Troitskiy coming up a tenth short with a late flying lap.
It proved a very close fight for fourth behind them, with four drivers separated by less than two hundredths of a second.
In the end, fourth went to Italian F4 graduate Ivan Matveev, who edged MSA F4’s Enaam Ahmed, Vladimir Atoev and Nerses Isaakyan.
Points leader Aleksanteri Huovinen was just eighth, leading two of his compatriots – Simo Laaksonen and Niclas Nylund, both of French F4 fame.
For race three, with Kari once again heading the order, Troitskiy will line up alongside, with Atoev and Korneev on row two.
Matveev and Ahmed will make up row three, ahead of Isaakyan, Huovinen, Laaksonen and Nylund.
Qualifying results
| Race 1 starting order | Race 3 starting order | ||||
| Pos. | Driver | Time | Pos. | Driver | Time |
| 1 | Niko Kari | 2:11.203 | 1 | Niko Kari | 2:11.552 |
| 2 | Alexey Korneev | 2:11.700 | 2 | Nikita Troitskiy | 2:11.927 |
| 3 | Nikita Troitskiy | 2:11.792 | 3 | Vladimir Atoev | 2:12.021 |
| 4 | Ivan Matveev | 2:11.981 | 4 | Alexey Korneev | 2:12.092 |
| 5 | Enaam Ahmed | 2:11.986 | 5 | Ivan Matveev | 2:12.108 |
| 6 | Vladimir Atoev | 2:11.995 | 6 | Enaam Ahmed | 2:12.131 |
| 7 | Nerses Isaakyan | 2:11.998 | 7 | Nerses Isaakyan | 2:12.288 |
| 8 | Aleksanteri Huovinen | 2:12.168 | 8 | Aleksanteri Huovinen | 2:12.375 |
| 9 | Simo Laaksonen | 2:12.191 | 9 | Simo Laaksonen | 2:12.485 |
| 10 | Niclas Nylund | 2:12.487 | 10 | Niclas Nylund | 2:12.803 |
| 11 | Nikita Sitnikov | 2:12.568 | 11 | Nikita Sitnikov | 2:12.896 |
| 12 | Denis Mavlanov | 2:12.770 | 12 | Aleksander Maslennikov | 2:13.036 |
| 13 | Aleksander Maslennikov | 2:12.881 | 13 | Semen Evstigneev | 2:13.177 |
| 14 | Semen Evstigneev | 2:13.008 | 14 | Artem Kabakov | 2:13.503 |
| 15 | Artem Kabakov | 2:13.354 | 15 | Denis Mavlanov | 2:13.756 |