Photo: Nordic 4
Nordic 4 was back in action with 24 cars at Jyllandsringen on August 21-24, with the races counting towards the Danish championship and Nordic Championship Formula.
There was pre-event test action on Thursday, and Sebastian Bach set a 1m07.273s to lead the way. Marius Kristiansen was 0.169 seconds behind in second, and there was a gap of 0.322s to Victor Snebjoern Poulsen in third. Mads Hoe did little running and was 5.307s off the pace in 18th.
Free practice followed on Friday. Bach was quickest, posting a 1m07.184s on his final lap. It put him 0.314s ahead of Poulsen, with Kristiansen a further 0.047s behind.
There was a gap of over a second to Casper Nissen in fourth, who pipped debutant Silas Egedal by 0.009s.
Saturday began with qualifying, and despite having his fastest laps deleted for speeding under yellow flag conditions Kristiansen was able to hold on to first place on the timesheet by 0.005s. He denied Bach pole, with Nissen trailing by 0.337s in third. Magnus Pedersen and Formula 5 poleman Mads Hoe were next up, and Melvin Kalousdian was the top Formula Renault 1.6 entrant in 11th, 0.95s off the overall pole.
Kristiansen was able to the end the day by converting pole into victory. After lap one there was no overtaking in the top seven, with Kristiansen and Bach streaking clear of Pedersen who had passed Nissen but then had him on his tail thereon.
Hoe held fifth, and Kalousdian dropped to 10th but recovered back one spot when Alexia Danielsson retired.
FR1.6 driver Viktor Molander stopped on the formation lap of race two and was a non-starter, while Anton Morsing made a very slow start from the front row and fell down the order.
Egedal led the field from reversed-grid pole, but a mistake led to him being passed by Poulsen on lap one. Nissen got through on lap three, and Hoe was initially fourth but could not match the F4 cars.
Poulsen was 1.6s clear when the safety car was summoned on lap six. Bach’s rear-right wheel had made contact with Hoe’s front-left when he passed him on the pit straight, sending him spinning into the sand at turn one.
There was a clash between FR1.6 drivers, and racing restarted on lap nine. The top four, completed by Pedersen, were way clear of Hoe who then served a 10s stop-go penalty and dropped out of points contention.
Poulsen started to gap Nissen, but he closed back in late on and finished 0.419s behind the first-time winner. Egedal held off Pedersen to make the podium, and 12s back was George Sebastian Pavlopoulos who led home F5 winner Morsing and Danielsson.
Richard Olson lost the FR1.6 class win to Hampus Varis after a penalty was applied.
Nissen had pole for race three, ahead of Pedersen and Poulsen. Kristiansen jumped from 10th to fourth on lap one, and took third on lap two as a gap opened to Egedal in fifth.
Through laps five and six, Kristiansen had his nose right on Pedersen and Poulsen was left behind. He got ahead on lap seven, and on lap eight Bach overtook Pavlopoulos for sixth into turn one.
Kristiansen went side-by-side with Nissen multiple times on lap nine, and again on lap 10 when he managed to squeeze past. However at the next corner Nissen and Pedersen overtook him.
In return, Kristiansen almost did a double move on lap 11 but ran off the track. He stayed on the throttle to keep second and dived into the next hairpin, going deep and leaving the inside line free for Pedersen to take the lead.
Traffic to lap was now involved, and the five-second gap to fourth dissapeared in a chaotic start to lap 12. There were yellow flags and Egedal copped a six-second penalty by ignoring those and going from fourth to first. Kristiansen and Pedersen followed him into turn one, and a late-braking move from Pavlopoulos on the outside put him fourth until he spun at turn two.
Pedersen and Kristiansen got back past Egedal, and it was a five-car lead fight going into the final lap with Nissen and Bach involved.
Kristiansen had another off that led to him crashing into Pedersen when trying to pass hjm as he rejoined, then they banged wheels again at each of the next corners until Kristiansen cut turn 11 and insteaded almost squeezed Egedal off after rejoining.
Nissen went past for second, and finished 0.472s behind Pedersen. Kristiansen took the Nordic 4 points lead in third, and Egedal was demoted to sixth behind Bach and Poulsen. Just 1.475s split the top six at the finish.
Results round-up [F5 entrants in italics, FR1.6 entrants in bold]
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Marius Kristiansen Team FSP 16m59.590s
2 Sebastian Bach STEP Motorsport +1.273s
3 Magnus Pedersen MP Racing +14.753s
4 Casper Nissen STEP Motorsport +15.060s
5 Mads Hoe Mads Hoe Motorsport +16.064s
6 Victor Snebjoern Poulsen STEP Motorsport +16.327s
7 Anton Morsing Mads Hoe Motorsport +19.534s
8 Silas Egedal Team FSP +19.676s
9 Melvin Kalousdian Race Team Gellerasen +29.869s
10 Richard Olson +31.721s
Pole: Kristiansen, 1m06.934s
Fastest lap: Kristiansen, 1m06.965s
Race 2 (14 laps)
1 Poulsen 16m22.831s
2 Nissen +0.419s
3 Egedal +1.362s
4 Pedersen +1.885s
5 George Sebastian Pavlopoulos STEP Motorsport +12.130s
6 Morsing +13.027s
7 Alexia Danielsson Team FSP +13.281s
8 Carl Pramming RaceCraft Driver Academy +22.312s
9 Hampus Varis +23.255s
10 Robin Hafstrom +23.878s
FL: Kristiansen, 1m07.336s
Race 3 (13 laps)
1 Pedersen 15m04.757s
2 Nissen +0.472s
3 Kristiansen +0.877s
4 Bach +1.212s
5 Poulsen +1.475s
6 Egedal +6.929s
7 Hoe +12.936s
8 Morsing +16.442s
9 Kalousdian +16.851s
10 Hafstrom +17.759s
FL: Kristiansen, 1m06.881s
Nordic 4 standings
1 Kristiansen 193 2 Bach 184 3 Hoe 159 4 Pedersen 137 5 Nissen 133 6 Poulsen 115 7 Morsing 78 8 Danielsson 54 9 Mads Larsen 49 10 Pavoloupolos 42
Nordic Championship Formula standings
1 Bach 196 2 Kristiansen 183 3 Poulsen 158 4 Nissen 112 5 Hoe 107 6 Pedersen 102 7 Pavoloupolos 86 8 Morsing 78 9 Danielsson 49 10 Kalousdian 36