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

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

Finnish brothers Rasmus Markkanen and Roope Markkanen?have been named as?the latest additions to the 2016 SMP F4 field.

Both making their single-seater debut at the age of 18, they spent the last three years competing in international Rotax championships.

Roope went on to take third in last year’s Rotax Euro Max Challenge DD2 with Rasmus finishing fifth in the same series.

The latter achieved the same position in the Rotax Grand Finals as well.

The duo joins fellow Finn karting graduates Tuomas Tujula and Juho Valtanen in the field.

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