Photo: Nordic 4
Marius Kristiansen departed the Nordic 4 season opener at Padborg Park last week as points leader.
It was Sebatian Bach who looked like the benchmark Formula 4 driver at first, heading Magnus Pedersen in the first practice session by 0.079 seconds while Kristiansen was in fifth and half a second off the pace.
The gaps grew in FP2, with Bach setting a 1m00.595s to lead Pedersen by 0.433s and Kristiansen by 0.697s. Mille Hoe, in the Formula 5 class for Formula Ford cars, was a further 0.036s back in fourth.
Bach remained on top in qualifying, a 59.839s lap earning him pole by 0.248s over Kristiansen. Pedersen was 0.391s off in third, and 2021 champion Mads Hoe was fourth. A second covered the top seven.
Saturday concluded with further success for Bach, as he converted pole into victory by 3.655s. The top three held their positions, Casper Nissen climbed from seventh to fourth and Mads Hoe was briefly in second after passing Pedersen mid-race but then retired.
Mads Larsen and Viktor Snebjoern Poulsen also failed to finish after a clash that required safety car intervention.
Mille Hoe started on reversed-grid pole for race two the next morning, and Alexia Danielsson tried to pass her off the line for the lead. Pedersen, from sixth, managed to swing to the inside, find room between the grass and the pole-sitter and then brake late to lead into turn one.
He quickly pulled away, with Nissen alone in second and battles further back. Bach got into third then fended off Kristiansen early on, as Mads Hoe retired again.
Kristiansen tried to go around the outside of Bach at turn one mid-race but was run off the road and dropped back. It took several laps to close back in, then an odd mistake by Bach at the final left-hander of the lap gave Kristiansen an easy way past.
He managed to hunt down Nissen and force a similar mistake out of him, but the one-and-a-half laps that remained was not enough to reel Pedersen in for the win.
Kristiansen lined up on pole for race three, and had no difficult in converting that into victory and the points lead. Mille Hoe and Jorgen Leerskov had a lap one crash that brought out the safety car, but the field were racing again by lap three.
George Sebastian Pavlopoulos spun then got beached on the restart, but only yellow flags were needed. Bach managed to squeeze past Pedersen for second on lap six, at which point Kristiansen was already way up the road.
Mads Hoe meanwhile had got up to fourth, and the F5 racer soon passed Pedersen too. Bach was overtaken in the race’s second half, but technial trouble struck a lap later and the only thing Hoe left the race with was fastest lap.
Pedersen finished third after several laps of pressure from Poulsen and Nissen. Poulsen made a great move for fourth with two laps to go, and almost got Pedersen at the finish.
Results round-up [F5 entrants in italics]
Race 1 (14 laps)
1 Sebastian Bach STEP Motorsport 16m57.526s
2 Marius Kristiansen Team FSP +3.655s
3 Magnus Pedersen MP Racing +5.345s
4 Casper Nissen STEP Motorsport +6.580s
5 George Sebastian Pavlopoulos STEP Motorsport +11.396s
6 Alexia Danielsson Team FSP +11.950s
7 Anton Morsing Mads Hoe Motorsport +17.482s
8 Mille Hoe Mads Hoe Motorsport +21.136s
9 Jorgen Leerskov Leerskov Racing +29.135s
10 Niels Ejnar Rytter +36.891s
Pole: Bach, 59.839s
Fastest lap: Kristiansen, 1m00.352s
Race 2 (16 laps)
1 Pedersen 16m42.267s
2 Kristiansen +1.568s
3 Nissen +3.149s
4 Bach +5.183s
5 Mads Larsen Mads Hoe Motorsport +15.610s
6 Danielsson +17.881s
7 Viktor Snebjoern Poulsen STEP Motorsport +25.079s
8 Pavlopoulos +30.147s
9 Hoe +33.787s
10 Leerskov +34.201s
FL: Kristiansen, 1m00.358s
Race 3 (15 laps)
1 Kristansen 16m40.917s
2 Bach +3.666s
3 Pedersen +15.618s
4 Poulsen +15.837s
5 Nissen +16.447s
6 Danielsson +18.919s
7 Larsen +20.571s
8 Morsing +27.316s
9 Hoe +29.368s
10 Nikolaj Dyrved RaceCraft Driver Academy +36.477s
FL: Mads Hoe, 1m00.047s
Nordic 4 standings
1 Kristiansen 61 2 Bach 55 3 Pedersen 55 4 Nissen 37 5 Danielsson 24 6 Poulsen 18 7 Larsen 16 8 Pavlopoulous 14 9 Morsing 10 10 Mille Hoe 8