Home Formula 4Danish F4 Kristiansen moves into Nordic Championship Formula lead at Karlskoga

Kristiansen moves into Nordic Championship Formula lead at Karlskoga

by Ida Wood

Photo: Nordic 4

Marius Kristiansen moved into the Nordic Championship Formula lead last weekend at Karlskoga.

It was a busy Saturday for drivers from the Nordic 4 series for Formula 4 and 5 cars and the Formula Renault 1.6-based Formula Nordic, and it began with a test session.

F4 driver Sebastian Bach led the way, setting a 1m05.895s to sit 0.557 seconds clear of F5 veteran Mads Hoe. Bach was quickest again in practice, a 1m05.915s putting him 0.131s ahead of Magnus Pedersen and 0.24s up on Kristiansen. Hoe was fourth, and Richard Olson was top FNordic driver in eighth.

Qualifying also went Bach’s way, as he improved to 1m05.235s. Kristiansen was 0.408s behind in second, just ahead of Victor Snebjoern Poulsen, and Olson was 0.815s off pole in fourth. George Sebastian Pavlopoulos and F5 runner Anton Morsing were also within a second of the pace, and Hoe was less 0.1s slower but down in eighth.

Bach led lights-to-flag in race one, and after a strong start Olson dropped to seventh on lap one and then to 10th before recovering to seventh. That was helped by Pedersen crashing out of the position on lap 11 of 18.

Hoe was an early retiree, so Morsing was unrivalled for the F5 win. He finished sixth after losing out to Alexia Danielsson and Pavlopoulos on lap one.

Casper Nissen attacked Morsing late on and got ahead with two laps to go, but then fell to a very distant ninth a lap later.

The top eight were reversed for the grid of Sunday morning’s race two, and FNordic driver Melvin Kalousdian held the lead from pole ahead of Olson.

Kristiansen and Danielsson were chasing Kalousdian by the end of lap two, while Olson was down in eighth. The lead went to Kristiansen on lap three, and a lap later he was being pursued by Bach. They got very close, and on lap 12 Bach dived down Kristiansen’s inside at turn one. A few corners later they swapped places again, then Bach went off down an escape round and rejoined in third before losing further ground and pitting.

Despite being unchallenged after that, Kristiansen did not win as a 10s penalty for jumping the start dropped him behind Danielsson and Poulsen. Hoe came from 18th to finish sixth, ahead of Kalousdian.

Kristiansen redeemed himself in race three from pole. Poulsen bogged down at the start then went off a few corners later, and Danielsson challenged the poleman until Bach dived past her.

She later got spun around by Nissen, who got a 20s penalty, while Bach got a five-second penalty for track limits abuse. He overtook Kristiansen with two laps to go, but his penalty meant he finished third behind Krisitiansen and Pedersen.

The most exciting battle was for fifth, as Olson held off FNordic rival Hampus Varis for the whole race. Kalousdian was ahead before stopping on track, and Poulsen conceded his advantage with a huge lock-up and off at turn one on lap 13.

Results round-up [F5 entrants in italics, FR1.6 entrants in bold]
Race 1 (18 laps)
1 Sebastian Bach STEP Motorsport 19m52.523s
2 Marius Kristiansen Team FSP +0.859s
3 Victor Snebjoern Poulsen STEP Motorsport +8.494s
4 Alexia Danielsson Team FSP +16.190s
5 George Sebastian Pavlopoulos STEP Motorsport +16.567s
6 Anton Morsing Mads Hoe Motorsport +23.926s
7 Richard Olson +36.937s
8 Melvin Kalousdian Race Team Gellerasen +44.042s
9 Casper Nissen STEP Motorsport +47.527s
10 Robin Hafstrom +52.171s
Pole: Bach, 1m05.235s
Fastest lap: Kristiansen, 1m05.547s

Race 2 (18 laps)
1 Danielsson 20m15.800s
2 Poulsen +1.122s
3 Kristiansen +1.356s
4 Nissen +1.557s
5 Magnus Pedersen RaceCraft Driver Academy +8.786s
Mads Hoe Mads Hoe Motorsport +12.549s
Kalousdian +20.724s
Morsing +25.638s
Olson +26.105s
10 Hafstrom +26.316s
FL: Bach, 1m05.815s

Race 3 (18 laps)
1 Kristiansen 20m13.994s
2 Pedersen +0.239s
3 Bach +3.973s
4 Pavlopoulos +13.625s
Olson +26.157s
Hampus Varis +26.241s
Hafstrom +31.347s
8 Poulsen +33.746s
9 Morsing +54.773
10 Viktor Molander Project F1 +1m01.560s
FL: Poulsen, 1m06.244s

Nordic Championship Formula standings
1 Kristiansen 92   2 Bach 91   3 Mads Hoe 83   4 Poulsen 77   5 Pedersen 50   6 Nissen 38   7 Pavoloupolos 34   8 Morsing 34   9 Danielsson 27   10 Olson 19