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: STCC

Three different drivers won the three Formula Renault 1.6 Nordic races this weekend, with wins going to FinnDrive duo of Ilmari Korpivaara and Juuso Puhakka, as well as Robert Svensson.

Korpivaara kicked off the action by converting his Saturday pole into a controlled win – his fourth of the season. Svensson was 1.3s off, while Puhakka completed the podium.

Oliver Soderstrom, Korpivaara’s main rival in the points, had qualified just seventh, but managed to limit the damage to his title chances as he finished fourth, a second up on Laurents Horr.

And it was Soderstrom who topped qualifying on Sunday, prevailing in a session that saw six cars separated by two tenths. Yet, on second-best laps, which determined the grid for Sunday’s first race, he lined up just fourth.

Korpivaara was, again, on pole, but allowed Svensson through on the opening lap and then retired while fighting for the lead. Puhakka, Soderstrom and fourth-placed Reuben Kressner all got within a second and a half of Svensson as the race went on, but the Swede held on to take the win.

The other Sunday race also went bad for the poleman – Soderstrom retired on the opening lap. With him out of the way, Puhakka charged to a maiden win, heading home Korpivaara and Svensson.

Horr was fifth, just as he was in races one and two.

Soderstrom’s retirement allowed Korpivaara to reclaim his lost championship lead and the Finn now heads the Swede by 13 points. Puhakka now sits third, a full 60 points down on the leader, with Horr and Svensson close behind.

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Photo: STCC

FinnDrive’s Ilmari Korpivaara closed in on championship leader Oliver Soderstrom by taking the win in the third Formula Renault 1.6 Nordic race of the season at Anderstorp.

Korpivaara started fifth, but mastered the wet conditions to charge to the front and take the checkered flag.

Poleman Laurents Horr kept the lead on the opening lead, while second-placed Linus Lundqvist slipped down the order, allowing Soderstrom and Korpivaara to move up to third and fourth respectively.

Soderstrom then passed Robert Svensson for P2 on the second lap and then worked his way around Horr for the lead two laps later.

But Korpivaara did not allow the Swede to escape out front, passing both Horr and Svensson in one lap and then quickly erasing Soderstrom’s two-second lead.

Despite his pace, the Finn took until the final lap to pass Soderstrom, but eventually managed to secure his first win in the category.

Horr came close to taking second off the Swede, but eventually had to do with third, as Svensson brought up the top four a second behind.

Lundqvist took fifth, ahead of Korpivaara’s teammate Juuso Puhakka, Robin Fredriksson, French F4 driver Reuben Kressner and Edward Jonasson.

Rasmus Ericsson and debutant Julia Holgersson did not make the finish.

Race results

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Photo: STCC

PWR Junior Team’s Oliver Soderstrom swept the opening round of the 2015 Formula Renault 1.6 Nodric season at Skovde.

Soderstrom, who starts his third season in FR1.6 and previously had a win at Parnu, won the opening race from pole position, beating the rest of the field by more than ten seconds.

Ilmari Korpivaara held on to second, keeping a train of cars behind him at the checkered flag. Fellow returnees Robert Svensson and Paul Blomqvist were third and fourth respectively.

Laurents Horr, who set the top time in qualifying but was excluded for being underweight, fought his way back to fifth place.

Korpivaara held pole for race two, but was beaten by Soderstrom off the line and eventually finished four seconds down.

Horr battled his way to the podium, while newcomers Linus Lundqvist and Juuso Puhakka completed the top five.

Race one results

Race two results

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Joonas Lappalainen successfully spearheaded FinnDrive’s 2014 title push (Photo: STCC)

Juuso Puhakka has been announced as Formula Renault 1.6 Nordic champion’s FinnDrive second signing for the 2015 season in the category.

Puhakka joins the previously unveiled returnee Ilmari Korpivaara, making up an all-Finnish lineup for the team.

In 2012, Puhakka finished in the KF3 class of the Bridgestone Cup. The next year, he was fifth-best in the Finnish championship, right behind his new teammate Korpivaara.

Last year, Puhakka took runner-up in the national series’ KF class and also took 19th in the same category of the CIK-FIA World Championship.

“Winning is everything and we will do what we can to rob the Swedes of the title this year as well,” teased FinnDrive boss Sami Lappalainen. “Ilmari is passionate about racing and is willing to work hard to achieve success on the track. He has all the qualities necessary to become a championship winner.”

“Juuso, meanwhile, really impressed us when he tested Formula Renault car for the first time last fall. He learned quickly and was fast right away.”

Joonas Lappalainen, who moves into the Audi TT Cup this year, won four races for FinnDrive on his way to the 1.6 Nordic 2014 title. Korpivaara was seventh with two podiums.

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