Formula 4 graduates Max Fewtrell and Jarno Opmeer have joined the Renault Sport Academy roster?for 2017, ahead of their debut seasons in Formula Renault.

The pair join GP3 racer?Jack Aitken and Chinese driver Sun Yue Yang – who will also debut?in Formula Renault this year – on the scheme based at the Renault Formula 1 team at Enstone and run by ex-Caterham GP2 chief Mia Sharizman (pictured, centre).

Fewtrell, 17, won the British F4 title in his first full season of car racing in 2016, while 16-year-old Opmeer finished second in the SMP F4 series behind fellow Dutch rookie Richard Verschoor.

They will drive?for Tech 1 Racing and MP Motorsport respectively in Formula Renault, while Sun Yue Yang will race for JD Motorsport after joining the Renault fold last year while still in karting.

Renault has previously pledged to?induct two drivers from the 2017?Eurocup – including the champion – to the academy and support them for 2018.

Aitken, the 2015 Formula Renault Eurocup and Alps champion, will switch to ART in GP3 after finishing fifth last season?for Arden.

There is no continued place in?the academy for Oliver Rowland, Louis Deletraz and Kevin Jorg, although Rowland may yet maintain?links to Enstone?after joining Nicholas Latifi at DAMS in GP2 for this year.

Deletraz will race in GP2 for Racing Engineering after finishing runner-up in Formula V8 3.5 last year, while Jorg stays in GP3 with Trident.

Sergey Sirotkin becomes the Renault F1 team’s official reserve driver after finishing third in GP2 for the past two seasons. He has been linked with a race seat in Super Formula for the coming season.

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Photo: F4 Spain

Finnish drivers?Roope Markkanen?and?Tuomas Tujula?claimed the victories on Sunday at the opening Spanish Formula 4 round at Navarra.

Markkanen took the race two victory from fourth on the grid, benefitting when Dutch rivals?Jarno Opmeer?and?Richard Verschoor collided and ran wide while fighting over the lead.

Red Bull Junior Verschoor had started from pole after winning race one but was passed early on by SMP F4 leader Opmeer, who had started third. Verschoor’s attempted fightback led to?the clash?that presented?Markkanen with a maiden F4 win.

Verschoor finished less than four tenths behind, with Opmeer completing the podium 2.5s back.?Alexander Vartanyan had another poor start but finished fourth, just ahead of the sole Spanish driver Xavier Lloveras.

Vartanyan made an even worse start in race three, stalling on?pole position. Verschoor took up the lead, but was forced to retire when he got stuck in third gear.

That handed the lead and eventually victory to Tujula, who finished last in race two after being penalised for jumping the start.

Behind that, there was a collision between Opmeer and Lloveras of which Markkanen was the beneficiary once again,?the Finn finishing second from seventh on the grid and taking the early championship lead.

While Lloveras retired, Opmeer finished fourth behind?Juuso Puhakka.

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Photo: F4 Spain

Red Bull Junior Richard Verschoor?won the first ever Spanish Formula 4 race at the Navarra circuit.

The Dutch driver led from pole position to chequered flag, finishing up four seconds clear of?Alex Vartanyan?in a field made up almost entirely of drivers that are already competing in the similarly Koiranen-run SMP series.

Racing here for the Drivex team co-owned by Pedro de la Rosa, Vartanyan had slipped from second to sixth with a bad start but the Russian produced a fine fightback, passing the battling?Roope Markkanen?and?Jarno Opmeer?in one move.

SMP F4 leader Opmeer got ahead of Markkanen – one of six drivers entered by Double R Racing – to complete the podium.

Xavier Lloveras – the solitary?Spanish driver present – finished fifth ahead of?Tuomas Tujula and?Nikita Volegov.

Rasmus Markkanen – involved in race-ending contact for Juho Valtanen on lap one – ended up eighth, with Nordic Formula Renault 1.6 driver?Juuso Puhakka and?Tuomas Haapalainen completing the finishers.

Vartanyan later claimed pole position for the third and final race of the weekend in the second qualifying session.

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Photo: GEPA pictures/Dutch Photo Agency

Jarno Opmeer?claimed his fifth SMP Formula 4 victory in the second race of the weekend at Zandvoort, before?Richard Verschoor ended his drought in the finale.

With the race two grid positions set by the race one result, Opmeer led from start to finish ahead of?Roope Markkanen, who shot from to second at the start in front of Verschoor.

Opmeer’s winning margin was only nine tenths over Finland’s Markkanen,?while Verschoor gave up the final podium place to Alexander Vartanyan when he ran wide into the gravel trying to pass the Finn around the outside.

Xavier Lloveras took fifth in front of Finns?Rasmus Markkanen,?Juho Valtanen and?Tuomas Tujula.

Starting from pole for the fourth time since his one previous victory in his single-seater debut at Sochi, Verschoor this time made a good start and led throughout, even though he twice had two-second margins eradicated by a safety car.

Vartanyan beat Opmeer into second place at the start while Valtanen took fourth ahead of the squabbling Markkanen twins, with Rasmus eventually beating Roope.

Behind them Tujula and?Artem Petrov?crashed heavily to trigger the second safety car, promoting Lloveras and?Roman Lebedev.

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Photo: SMP F4

Jarno Opmeer scored his fourth win from sixth starts to boost his SMP Formula 4 Championship lead in the first race of the Max Verstappen Race Days event at Zandvoort.

It was Verstappen’s fellow Red Bull athlete?Richard Verschoor on pole once again, but he again got into difficulty in the race with a poor start relegating him to sixth.

Rasmus Markkanen meanwhile beat Opmeer into the lead from third on the grid, but the Dutch driver would pass the Finn on lap two and won by almost six seconds.

Verschoor charged his way back up to second, relegating Markkanen to third ahead of twin brother Roope Markkanen.

Xavier Lloveras was fifth ahead of?Tuomas Tujula, who was signed this week by Double R Racing to also take part in Spanish F4.

Alex Vartanyan beat?Juho Valtanen to seventh, with?Danny Kroes ninth and?Nikita Volegov taking 10th from 15th on the grid.

Verschoor later took another pole position for the third race of the weekend.

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Photo: SMP F4 Championship

Jarno Opmeer increased his lead in the SMP Formula 4 standings with victories in both Sunday races at home at Zandvoort.

Third on the grid for race two, Opmeer gained a place off the start when?Richard Verschoor stalled from P2 and then took the lead away from race one winner?Tuomas Tujula on the second lap.

Juho Valtanen followed him past Tujula a lap later and quickly slashed the gap to Opmeer. A very close battle ensued, and a mere 14 thousandths of a second separated them at the finish.

Tujula was just half a second back in third, while?Danny Kroes was a lonely fourth.?Rasmus Markkanen just held off?Alex Vartanyan for fifth, with Verschoor fighting back to seventh after falling to 17th.

On the day that fellow Dutch Red Bull driver Max Verstappen took a shock F1 win, new Red Bull Junior Verschoor had a frustrating day. He claimed pole race three and led for eight of the 12 laps before serving a drive-through penalty for a jump start, which with the majority of the race run behind the safety car meant he finished 13th.

“After I finished I went to race control and they said I had moved at the start as the third red light came on,” said Verschoor.

“I didn’t even realise I had moved, was just feeling for the biting point of the clutch, I didn’t jump the start. They said I had only moved a bit but it was enough for them.”

Opmeer benefitted to take the win ahead of Tujula and Vartanyan. Opmeer’s points tally is up to 98, with Vartanyan on 56, Tujula on 53 and Verschoor on 42.

SMP F4 will be back at Zandvoort on 3-5 June for the Max Verstappen Race Days with a large crowd likely.

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Photo: SMP F4 Championship

Tuomas Tujula upstaged new Red Bull Junior Richard Verschoor on his home turf to win the first SMP Formula 4 race at Zandvoort.

Finnish driver Tujula qualified third, and moved past Jarno Opmeer at the start as Verschoor led from pole.

At a safety car restart (after Gleb Zotov crashed at the pit exit after serving a drive-through penalty), Tujula capitalised on a lock-up from Verschoor at Turn 1 to snatch the lead.

Another saftey car, caused by an off for Henri Kauppi, gave Verschoor one lap to try and regain the lead, but Tujula held on.

Championship leader Opmeer dropped from second to fourth at the start, but would regain a podium spot from Juho Valtanen at the first restart.

A charging Rasmus Markkanen also passed Valtanen and chased Opmeer, but his attempted pass led to a crash and retirement.

With Spaniard Xavier Lloveras forced out by mechanical failure, Alexander Vartanyan took fifth in front of Danny Kroes and Nikita Tziortzis.

Roope Markkanen, Nikita Sitnikov and Artem Slutskiy completed the top 10 ahead of Nikita Volegov, who had qualified sixth for his single-seater debut.

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Photo: SMP F4 CHAMPIONSHIP

Jarno Opmeer was victorious in the second and last race in the SMP F4 season opener at Sochi.

The Dutch karting graduate was the early leader but spun?when Race 1 winner Richard Verschoor attempted to overtake him, which resulted in the latter’s retirement.

Opmeer dropped behind sophomores Alexey Korneev and Nikita Sitnikov as a result and the action was neutralized soon after, following an incident involving Aleksander Maslennikov.

On lap 8, Opmeer passed Sitnikov and soon got ahead of Korneev as well to secured his career-first win.

The aforementioned Russian duo completed the podium with Alexander Vartanyan repeating his Race 1 result in fourth.

Finn duo Rasmus Markkanen and Tuomas Haapalainen took fifth and sixth respectively, the latter dropping as low as 16th after the start.

Vladimir Tziortzis and Danny Kroes completed the top eight.

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Photo: SMP F4 Championship

Former karting star Richard Verschoor converted his pole position into a victory in his first ever car race in the?SMP F4 opener at?Sochi.

Although the 15-year-old lost the lead at the start to fellow Dutchman Jarno Opmeer, he quickly recovered and led most of the race.

Just as Verschoor dropped down to second,?the safety car entered the?track due to a number of contact-enforced retirements, with?Alexey Korneev,?Tuomas Tujula, Zakhar Slutskii, Rasmus Markkanen and Tuomas Haapalainen?all eliminated.

However, Verschoor was back in the lead once the race continued.

Although he couldn’t shake Opmeer, it was Verschoor taking the checkered flag first to win the?first single-seater race of his career in front of the Formula 1 teams.

Fellow karting graduates Opmeer and Rasmus Markkanen completed the podium, the latter taking advantage of a mistake from Nikita Sitnikov.

Alexander Vartanyan climbed from 11th to fourth ahead of Sitnikov and?Danny Kroes.?Henri Kauppi took seventh in front of Xavier Lloveras with?Aleksander Maslennikov ninth and Artem?Petrov taking 10th.

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Photo: SMP F4 Championship

Dutch karting graduate Jarno Opmeer will contest the SMP F4 championship this year, it’s been confirmed.

The youngster started his karting career with a streak of national titles including the 2009 and 2010 Dutch Mini junior and the 2011 Dutch KFJ championships.

He has been competing in the international scene since 2013, the 16-year-old entering series?such as DKM, CIK-FIA European Championship or the SKUSA SuperNationals.

“I feel very happy and confident to join the series,” said Opmeer.

“The circuits look cool and the cars are the same because of the strict regulations so there?s no advantage for anyone.

“After few hours in the car, my confidence grew up and now I am improving each and every time I jump in it. This year, I will be patient and gather experience by finishing races.”

Opmeer is supported by the same KNAF Talent First programme, which helped fellow Dutchman Richard Verschoor enter the series.

“Jarno is a very talented driver who was part of our KNAF Talent First karting program for many years,” added Maarten van Wesenbeeck, leader of the organization.

“It is great that he choose to enter the SMP F4 NEZ Championship for his step onto single-seaters. I think he will surprise many people with outstanding results.”

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