Photo: Nordic 4
Marius Kristiansen reclaimed the Nordic Championship Formula points lead at Padborg Park’s Night Race event.
He usurpsed Sebastian Bach, who started last weekend’s penultimate round with a big pace advantage as he was fastest by 1.767 seconds in practice over Victor Snebjoern Poulsen.
Friday morning ended with qualifying, and Bach set a 1m01.066s to claim race one pole by 0.304s over Kristiansen. Casper Nissen was a further 0.068s behind, and Formula 5 drivers Anton Morsing and Mads Hoe were both within 0.62s of pole in fourth and fifth.
Melvin Kalousdian was the top Formula Renault 1.6 driver in 11th, 1.808s off the pace.
The day ended with race one, and Nissen carved his way through to a maiden victory. He had a prolonged battle with Kristiansen and Bach, which actually allowed Morsing to stay in contention too.
Nissen won by 0.53s, leading home Kristiansen and first-time podium finisher Morsing.
Poulsen was 14s behind in fifth, and debutant Milla Sjostrand secured the final point after a big battle for 10th.
The reversed-grid race two was the next afternoon. Kalousdian put in a great drive from the front row, but just missed out on the podium.
He led FR1.6 runner Hampus Varis and Silas Egedal into the opening corner. Egedal, Bach and Nissen all overtook Varis before the end of lap two, and Kalousdian built a gap.
Bach went down Egedal’s inside at turn eight on lap three, and Kristiansen took several corners of lap four to get his move done on him.
When Kalousdian did come under attack, he was saved by Kristiansen coming onto Bach’s rear and forcing his way past into turn nine. It helped Kalousdian break away again, albeit only for one lap.
He had to cover the inside into turn one next time by to keep three Formula 4 drivers at bay, and Kristiansen took the lead around the outside at turn eight. Kalousdian then locked up into turn nine, dropping him to fourth.
He did get back alongside Nissen on the next lap, but at turn eight Nissen swept around the outside (after near-contact) to get agead.
There was then several laps of yellow flag action due to Carl Pramming spinning, and when racing resumed Nissen and Kalousdian continued fighting. There was a big queue of cars, and while Kristiansen pulled away to win, Hoe slipped past at the last corner (which is also turn one) for third and Nissen secured fourth by 0.002s.
Hoe had skipped race one due a technical issue, and had started race two from 19th.
Kristiansen had pole for race three and went unchallenged up front. Bach took second from Nissen on lap five with a turn eight dive, then was similarly lonely.
As Egedal tried passing Poulsen for fourth on lap seven in multiple places, it brought Magnus Pedersen onto their tails and almost triggered contact. He locked up into turn one but got ahead of Egedal, and did the same on Poulsen on lap nine.
Egedal made a great move around the outside of turn one on lap 10 to finally clear Poulsen, but now there were even more drivers joining in and Hoe dived past Poulsen late in the lap.
Pedersen caught up to Nissen and had another lock-up that nosed him ahead, but after more side-by-action a queue had formed behind.
On lap 12 they were wheel-to-wheel through to turn five where Pedersen nosed back past. But they banged wheels down the back straight and remained next to each other until Pedersen was forced off exiting turn nine.
Egedal swiftly overtook Nissen into turn one next time by, Hoe followed through at turn two then Pedersen nerfed Nissen into the turn three gravel where he would remain.
Pedersen was penalised and finished seventh, while Hoe kept his Nordic 4 title hopes going in third ahead of Egedal. Poulsen finished fifth, and remains in the Nordic Championship Formula title fight with one round remaining.
Results round-up [F5 entrants in italics, FR1.6 entrants in bold]
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Casper Nissen STEP Motorsport 16m53.583s
2 Marius Kristiansen Team FSP +0.530s
3 Anton Morsing Mads Hoe Motorsport +1.191s
4 Sebatian Bach STEP Motorsport +1.759s
5 Victor Snebjoern Poulsen STEP Motorsport +13.898s
6 Silas Egedal Team FSP +16.675s
7 Hampus Varis +22.967s
8 Melvin Kalousdian Race Team Gellerasen +26.725s
9 Mille Hoe Mads Moe Motorsport +33.436s
10 Milla Sjostrand STEP Motorsport +35.410s
Pole: Bach, 1m01.066s
Fastest lap: Bach, 1m01.197s
Race 2 (13 laps)
1 Kristiansen 16m07.818s
2 Bach +0.986s
3 Mads Hoe Mads Hoe Motorsport +4.464s
4 Nissen +4.790s
5 Kalousdian +4.792s
6 Egedal +5.054s
7 Poulsen +5.524s
8 Magnus Pedersen MP Racing +6.005s
9 Varis +7.436s
10 Mille Hoe +10.200s
FL: Kristiansen, 1m00.976s
Race 3 (16 laps)
1 Kristiansen 16m38.515s
2 Bach +4.943s
3 Mads Hoe +14.451s
4 Egedal +15.834s
5 Poulsen +17.321s
6 Morsing +18.241s
7 Pedersen +19.647s
8 Kalousdian +25.661s
9 Varis +26.315s
10 Sjostrand +33.926s
FL: Pedersen, 1m00.713s
Nordic 4 standings
1 Kristiansen 261 2 Bach 232 3 Mads Hoe 189 4 Nissen 170 5 Pedersen 147 6 Poulsen 141 7 Morsing 101 8 Egedal 55 9 Alexia Danielsson 54 10 Mads Larsen 49
Nordic Championship Formula standings
1 Kristiansen 251 2 Bach 244 3 Poulsen 184 4 Nissen 149 5 Mads Hoe 137 6 Pedersen 112 7 Morsing 101 8 George Sebastian Pavolopoulos 86 9 Egedal 55 10 Kalousdian 54