Photo: Nordic 4

Marius Kristiansen moved into the Nordic Championship Formula lead last weekend at Karlskoga.

It was a busy Saturday for drivers from the Nordic 4 series for Formula 4 and 5 cars and the Formula Renault 1.6-based Formula Nordic, and it began with a test session.

F4 driver Sebastian Bach led the way, setting a 1m05.895s to sit 0.557 seconds clear of F5 veteran Mads Hoe. Bach was quickest again in practice, a 1m05.915s putting him 0.131s ahead of Magnus Pedersen and 0.24s up on Kristiansen. Hoe was fourth, and Richard Olson was top FNordic driver in eighth.

Qualifying also went Bach’s way, as he improved to 1m05.235s. Kristiansen was 0.408s behind in second, just ahead of Victor Snebjoern Poulsen, and Olson was 0.815s off pole in fourth. George Sebastian Pavlopoulos and F5 runner Anton Morsing were also within a second of the pace, and Hoe was less 0.1s slower but down in eighth.

Bach led lights-to-flag in race one, and after a strong start Olson dropped to seventh on lap one and then to 10th before recovering to seventh. That was helped by Pedersen crashing out of the position on lap 11 of 18.

Hoe was an early retiree, so Morsing was unrivalled for the F5 win. He finished sixth after losing out to Alexia Danielsson and Pavlopoulos on lap one.

Casper Nissen attacked Morsing late on and got ahead with two laps to go, but then fell to a very distant ninth a lap later.

The top eight were reversed for the grid of Sunday morning’s race two, and FNordic driver Melvin Kalousdian held the lead from pole ahead of Olson.

Kristiansen and Danielsson were chasing Kalousdian by the end of lap two, while Olson was down in eighth. The lead went to Kristiansen on lap three, and a lap later he was being pursued by Bach. They got very close, and on lap 12 Bach dived down Kristiansen’s inside at turn one. A few corners later they swapped places again, then Bach went off down an escape round and rejoined in third before losing further ground and pitting.

Despite being unchallenged after that, Kristiansen did not win as a 10s penalty for jumping the start dropped him behind Danielsson and Poulsen. Hoe came from 18th to finish sixth, ahead of Kalousdian.

Kristiansen redeemed himself in race three from pole. Poulsen bogged down at the start then went off a few corners later, and Danielsson challenged the poleman until Bach dived past her.

She later got spun around by Nissen, who got a 20s penalty, while Bach got a five-second penalty for track limits abuse. He overtook Kristiansen with two laps to go, but his penalty meant he finished third behind Krisitiansen and Pedersen.

The most exciting battle was for fifth, as Olson held off FNordic rival Hampus Varis for the whole race. Kalousdian was ahead before stopping on track, and Poulsen conceded his advantage with a huge lock-up and off at turn one on lap 13.

Results round-up [F5 entrants in italics, FR1.6 entrants in bold]
Race 1 (18 laps)
1 Sebastian Bach STEP Motorsport 19m52.523s
2 Marius Kristiansen Team FSP +0.859s
3 Victor Snebjoern Poulsen STEP Motorsport +8.494s
4 Alexia Danielsson Team FSP +16.190s
5 George Sebastian Pavlopoulos STEP Motorsport +16.567s
6 Anton Morsing Mads Hoe Motorsport +23.926s
7 Richard Olson +36.937s
8 Melvin Kalousdian Race Team Gellerasen +44.042s
9 Casper Nissen STEP Motorsport +47.527s
10 Robin Hafstrom +52.171s
Pole: Bach, 1m05.235s
Fastest lap: Kristiansen, 1m05.547s

Race 2 (18 laps)
1 Danielsson 20m15.800s
2 Poulsen +1.122s
3 Kristiansen +1.356s
4 Nissen +1.557s
5 Magnus Pedersen RaceCraft Driver Academy +8.786s
6 Mads Hoe Mads Hoe Motorsport +12.549s
7 Kalousdian +20.724s
8 Morsing +25.638s
9 Olson +26.105s
10 Hafstrom +26.316s
FL: Bach, 1m05.815s

Race 3 (18 laps)
1 Kristiansen 20m13.994s
2 Pedersen +0.239s
3 Bach +3.973s
4 Pavlopoulos +13.625s
5 Olson +26.157s
6 Hampus Varis +26.241s
7 Hafstrom +31.347s
8 Poulsen +33.746s
9 Morsing +54.773
10 Viktor Molander Project F1 +1m01.560s
FL: Poulsen, 1m06.244s

Nordic Championship Formula standings
1 Kristiansen 92   2 Bach 91   3 Mads Hoe 83   4 Poulsen 77   5 Pedersen 50   6 Nissen 38   7 Pavoloupolos 34   8 Morsing 34   9 Danielsson 27   10 Olson 19

The post Kristiansen moves into Nordic Championship Formula lead at Karlskoga appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Nordic 4

Nordic 4 headed to Sweden for round three of the season, and its races at Karlskoga ran in conjunction with the Formula Renault 1.6-spec Formula Nordic.

Track action began on Friday with a test session, topped by Mathias Bjerre Jakobsen, then a practice session where Jakobsen set a 1m05.661s to be fastest by 0.628 seconds over Magnus Pedersen.

Qualifying took place on Saturday morning, and Jakobsen was fastest again. He set a 1m05.392s to lead Formula 5 racer Mads Hoe and Pedersen by 0.647s, with Louis Leaveau a further 0.022s behind in fourth and Sebastian Bach 0.913s off the pace in fifth. Daniel Varverud was the top FNordic runner in sixth.

A massive downpour hit the track before race one in the afternoon, and Peder Saltvedt managed to miss his grid slot and slide off the track so his car had to be pulled away before the race could begin.

Jakobsen nailed the start, while Pedersen and Varverud had cleared Hoe by turn one.

As Jakobsen streaked away, Hoe was left holding off Marius Kristiansen and Leveau. On lap six the trio closed back in on Varverud, and Hoe passed him at the start of lap seven. Kristiansen and Leveau overtook him a few corners later, then Leveau managed to also get ahead of Kristiansen. Varverud promptly retired in the pits.

There was a 4.4s gap between the top two and 22s back to third when the safety car appeared on lap nine, and Pedersen tried passing Jakobsen around the outside of turn one when racing resumed. He failed, then slid off into the barriers later in the lap.

Jakobsen now had a 4.5s lead over Hoe, which grew to 12.878s by the finish. Bach joined the battle for third late on, and Albin Stureson was FNordic’s top driver in sixth.

It was dry on Sunday morning for the reversed-grid race two. Alexia Danielsson started on pole but was behind Robin Hafstrom and Leveau by the end of lap one. Jakobsen passed her on lap three, and on lap four Leveau and Jakobsen overtook Hafstrom while Danielsson lost fourth to Kristiansen.

On lap six Kristiansen, Pedersen (who started 16th) and Hoe got past Hafstrom as Danielsson sunk even further down the order. Hoe’s retirement a lap later did nothing to help her, and Jakobsen finally broke Leveau’s defences on lap eight.

Jakobsen built a 4.616s lead over the remaining 10 laps, Kristansen held off multiple attacks from Pedersen for third and Bach finished fifth. Hafstrom retired in the pits while running in sixth, so F5 winner Mads Kjelde Larsen inherited the position.

Laerke Ronn Sorensen had to fight his way past Varverud and Stureson to finish seventh.

Jakobsen had race three pole, and took another dominant win. Leveau held off Kristiansen until lap six, when he moved across him at turn one and broke Kristiansen’s front wing. On lap seven Leveau retired, and Bach started attacking Kristiansen. He could not get past, and it allowed Hoe (who started 11th) and Pedersen to close in.

Hoe passed Bach on lap 15 and Kristiansen on his first attempt a lap later, with Kristiansen then going off and retiring. Pedersen cleared Bach on his first attempt on lap 17, then the trio ran in line until the end.

Results round-up [F5 entrants in italics, FR1.6 entrants in bold]
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Mathias Bjerre Jakobsen STEP Motorsport 20m25.920s
2 Mads Hoe Mads Hoe Motorsport +12.878s
3 Louis Leveau Team FSP +13.230s
4 Marius Kristiansen Team FSP +13.809s
5 Sebastian Bach STEP Motorsport +14.250s
6 Albin Stureson +21.409s
7 Robin Hafstrom +22.128s
8 Alexia Danielsson Team FSP +22.996s
9 Enzo Hallman +24.264s
10 Mads Kjelde Larsen Mads Hoe Motorsport +24.757s
Pole: Jakobsen, 1m05.392s
Fastest lap: Jakobsen, 1m14.263s

Race 2 (18 laps)
1 Jakobsen 20m09.861s
2 Leveau +4.616s
3 Kristiansen +5.764s
4 Magnus Pedersen MP Racing +6.015s
5 Bach +9.927s
6 Larsen +19.199s
7 Laerke Ronn Sorensen STEP Motorsport +21.648s
8 Stureson +24.102s
9 Daniel Varverud +24.437s
10 Danielsson +25.625s
FL: Jakobsen, 1m05.710s

Race 3 (18 laps)
1 Jakobsen 20m07.739s
2 Hoe +11.448s
3 Pedersen +11.623s
4 Bach +11.877s
5 Sorensen +18.768s
6 Varverud +25.868s
7 Danielsson +26.892s
8 Hafstrom +31.962s
9 Mille Hoe Mads Hoe Motorsport +32.031s
10 Larsen +36.582s
FL: Jakobsen, 1m06.066s

Championship standings
1 Mads Hoe 152   2 Jakobsen 142   3 Pedersen 127   4 Bach 108   5 Kristiansen 97   6 Leveau 80   7 Sorensen 72   8 Larsen 40   9 Mille Hoe 25   10 Danielsson 23

The post Mathias Bjerre Jakobsen dominates at Karlskoga in Nordic 4 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Formel 4.dk

Danish Formula 4 and Sweden’s Formula Renault 1.6-spec Formula Nordic series shared grids for a second time this year at Karlskoga, and the two categories ended up more evenly matched.

At Anderstorp Raceway last month the F4 cars convicingly set the pace, and in Karlskoga qualifying Mikkel Pedersen took pole by 0.261 seconds over namesake Magnus Pedersen.

Mathias Bjerre Jakobsen was 0.315s behind in third, and top FNordic runner Linus Granfors was 0.478s back in fourth. Mads Hoe, the fastest Formula 5 driver, was 0.937s off the pace in seventh.

The combined grid meant 21 cars started race one, but absent from the action was Mikkel Pedersen and Theodor Jensen, who would have lined up fifth. Pedersen came to a stop en route to the grid, while Jensen was stuck on the grid on the formation lap and was left there, then got hit hard from behind at the actual start by FNordic runner Viktor Molander and the pair had to sit out the rest of the event.

Magnus Pedersen had a strong getaway when the lights went out, while Jakobsen had a slow start but stayed ahead of Granfors before the race was red flagged.

Once the pit straight was cleared of two stricken cars, the race clock was reset. Pedersen made another strong start, and Christer Otterstrom passed Granfors mid-lap for third place overall and the FNordic lead.

Jakobsen took the overall lead by darting down the inside at turn one of lap three of the restarted race, while Otterstrom put a wheel on the grass and dropped back behind Granfors.

The gap between the top two quickly grew, but Pedersen was back in the lead on lap seven as Jakobsen had an incident that broke his front-left wheel and left him stranded on track.

The top three ran closely, and Granfors took the lead on lap 12 of 17 by going down the inside of the left-hander Harlanen hairpin.

Otterstrom passed Pedersen three laps later, but as they navigated lapped traffic Pedersen got the opportunity to get back ahead on lap 16.

The traffic meant Granfors managed to win by an astonishing 11.692s, with Pedersen holding on to second. Victor Nielsen was a distant fourth, and Oliver Kratsch took F5 victory in fifth after Hoe sunk to 10th.

Mikkel Pedersen got another chance to start from pole in race two, but lost the lead straight away to Magnus Pedersen. He then sat in second until lap 10 of 16, when an incident dropped him to seventh.

The lap before that Andreas Vaa had spun out, and drivers kept having to swerve to avoid his car until the safety car appeared on lap 13. Racing resumed on the penultimate lap, and Magnus Pedersen became points leader with victory ahead of Jakobsen, Granfors, Nielsen and Otterstrom. Hoe was a distant F4 winner in sixth, and Mikkel Pedersen finished ninth.

Redemption finally came for Mikkel Pedersen in race three, as he passed polesitter Magnus to win. Granfors finished third, Otterstrom resisted early pressure from Nielsen for fourth, and Jakobsen charged up from 15th to sixth. Hoe missed the race.

Results round-up [F5 entrants in italics, FR1.6 entrants in bold]
Race 1 (18 laps)
1 Linus Granfors Granforce Racing 19m56.451s
2 Magnus Pedersen MP Racing +11.692s
3 Christer Otterstrom +12.200s
4 Victor Nielsen STEP Motorsport +15.889s
5 Oliver Kratsch Mads Hoe Motorsport +15.937s
6 Oscar Pedersen +16.615s
7 Olav Vaa +21.446s
8 Emma Wigroth WestCoast Racing +24.878s
9 Daniel Varverud +25.423s
10 Mads Hoe Mads Hoe Motorsport +33.334s
Pole: Mikkel Pedersen, 1m04.620s
Fastest lap: Granfors, 1m04.918s

Race 2 (16 laps)
1 Magnus Pedersen 19m05.864s
2 Mathias Bjerre Jakobsen Team FormulaSport +0.682s
3 Granfors +2.440s
4 Nielsen +3.347s
5 Otterstrom +4.182s
6 Hoe +6.204s
7 Kratsch +6.509s
8 Oscar Pedersen +8.263s
9 Mikkel Pedersen Team BAR +9.975s
10 Vaa +11.092s
FL: Magnus Pedersen, 1m04.761s

Race 3 (18 laps)
1 Mikkel Pedersen19m38.723s
2 Magnus Pedersen +2.291s
3 Granfors +8.698s
4 Otterstrom +12.736s
5 Nielsen +17.317s
6 Jakobsen +20.283s
7 Oscar Pedersen +21.535s
8 Carita Livrud Otterstrom +29.749s
9 Kratsch +29.843s
10 Jonathan Engstrom +30.770s
FL: Mikkel Pedersen, 1m04.730s

Danish F4 standings
1 Magnus Pedersen 156   2 Mikkel Pedersen 141   3 Nielsen 113   4 Jakobsen 84   5 Mads Hoe 74   6 Mille Hoe 60   7 Kratsch 46   8 Frederik Stena 42   9 Theodor Jensen 37   10 Morten Stromsted 20

The post Danish F4 and FNordic drivers put on a combined show at Karlskoga appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Boxengasse Media & PR

Danish Formula 4 and Formula Nordic have confirmed they will share grids next season in the release of the former’s 2023 calendar.

The ambitious plan to bring the two series together was first revealed to Formula Scout this summer.

The Formula Renault 1.6-spec FNordic series needed competitive grid sizes to be maintained before potentially introducing second-generation F4 cars in three or four years’ time, while Danish F4 also needs to keep grid sizes up in anticipation of a point where grids are no longer shared with the Formula Ford-based Formula 5 cars due to decreasing interest in the F5 class.

• Read more: How Danish F4 sees itself, and its future

Racing in Sweden is not a new concept for Danish F4, having visited Kinnekulle Ring in 2019 and Sturup Raceway this year. Next season two of the six rounds will run in the country.

As is tradition, Padborg Park will be venue of the opening round of the season in 2023 and will do so on April 29/30.

The two rounds in Sweden then follow, with former Swedish Grand Prix venue Anderstorp visited on May 12/13, then former European Formula 2 track Karlskoga on June 4/5. Both events will include shared grids with FNordic.

Following a big break, the second half of the season is condensed into one month with rounds at Ring Djursland (September 2/3), Padborg Park (September 15/16) and Jyllandsringen (September 30/October 1).

• Feature: Life as a small F4 team: Formula Scout’s Danish adventure

“We have three fine race tracks in Denmark, but as a young racing driver it is important to try as much as possible,” said Danish F4’s promoter Alex Stubberup Frederichsen.

“By driving at Anderstorp and Gelleråsen, which are in their own way different from anything we have in Denmark, the drivers get even more in their backpacks for their future careers, so I am convinced that it will be very good.”

“Interest in F4 has never been greater, and with a calendar like this, I don’t think we can do much more to equip the young talents to take the step out into the world. I am very much looking forward to getting started on 2023.”

Danish F4 will continue to use a first-generation Mygale chassis for next season, and has managed to secure a slot on the bill of Padborg Park’s Night Race event with its second visit to the track in September.

The post Danish F4 pushes forward with FNordic alliance in 2023 calendar appeared first on Formula Scout.

This year Formula 2 makes a bold shake-up of its weekend schedule to have three races at each round. Triple-headers at this level of single-seater racing is a rarity, and was last seen in F2 way back in 1973

Besides arriving with such a large bundle of money that a team couldn’t possibly turn it down, one of the best ways to earn yourself a seat on the Formula 1 grid is by winning the Formula 2 title. Except that hasn’t always been the case.

In the past, winning in F2 wasn’t something you did before F1, it was what you did while you were in F1. The best grand prix racers of the 1960s and 1970s would usually be filling their spare weekends with races in sportscars or in European F2.

The European championship was succeeded by International Formula 3000 in 1985, then by GP2 in 2005, before that was rebranded and then relaunched as the F2 of today.

Drivers who competed in the first era of F2, which began in 1967, were split into graded and non-graded entries. The latter could score points, while the former had amassed too much top-level experience in F1 to be eligible for championship honours. It was the graded drivers that quite often did the winning though in the series’ first decade.

Most rounds were single-race events, and usually carried prestigious names such as Eifelrennen, the BRDC International Trophy and the Pau Grand Prix. As the years went on, many events switched to a split format where the results of two races would be combined to declare one event winner. Then for a short time there were three-race rounds too, with qualifying setting the grid for two heat races, and the results of those being used to set the grid for the points-scoring final race.

That format was last used in 1973, and the series slowly moved back to single-race events becoming more common.

GP2 and modern F2 have run all of their events to two races, with qualifying setting the grid for Saturday’s higher-scoring feature race, and then the results of that race partially reversed for the shorter Sunday sprint race.

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

The Friday of each F2 round will remain unchanged in 2021, with a single 45-minute free practice session before a half-hour qualifying session that sets the feature race grid.

Saturdays will now included two sprint races, with the feature race pushed to Sunday, and each will run to 45 minutes or 120 kilometres, whichever comes first over a race duration.

The first sprint race will reverse the top 10 from qualifying to set its grid, while the grid for the second sprint race race will be set by the results of the first but with the top 10 finishers reversed.

Each of the sprint races will be equal in points, and use the current 15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 format, while the feature race mirrors F1’s points format of rewarding the top 10 finishers using 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1. Pole will still earn four points, and the driver with the fastest lap within the top 10 finishers of each race will also earn two additional points.

Compulsory use of both nominated Pirelli slick compounds will remain in dry-weather feature races, and they will run to either an hour or 170km at most circuits, depending on which is shorter to complete.

That distance isn’t too different to what was used at Karlskoga in 1973, the last time the three-race format appeared.

The Swedish circuit was holding the 12th round of the season, and it was a pretty big deal as it marked the track’s return to high-profile motorsport after being closed for two years following a crash that killed five spectators. It also marked the revival of Kanonloppet (The Cannon Race), which had been a non-championship F1 race in 1961-’63 before adopting F2 rules.

A grid of over 30 cars was expected to turn up to Karlskoga, but only 20 actually competed as the likes of Lotus’s reigning F1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi and Team Surtees’ F2 title contender Jochen Mass skipped on the action.

An aerial view of Karlskoga

Peter Gethin, winner of the closest race in F1 history at Monza two years prior, set the pace in qualifying with a 1m12.5s lap in his factory Chevron B25. His closest rival was unsurprisingly points leader Jean-Pierre Jarier, who had been the points-scoring winner six times already that season in his factory March.

They were split up for the two heats, each running to 114.3km over 36 laps (close to a modern F2 sprint race).

Jarier dominated his heat by 19 seconds over home hero Ronnie Peterson, who was representing Lotus on his own after Fittipaldi chose not to compete. A further 17.8s behind was Jarier’s team-mate Andy Sutcliffe, a graduate of British Formula 3.

Only half of the 10-car grid finished on the lead lap, with Team Nippon’s highly-rated Japanese talent Hiroshi Kazato being classified four laps down, Irish talent Brendan McInerney failing to meet the chequered flag due to a driveshaft problem and the trio of Brett Lunger (Chevron), Jacques Coulon (Brian Lewis Racing) and Reine Wisell (Picko Troberg Racing) all being lost to engine issues.

Wisell, whose car was sponsored by Scandinavian beauty brand Pierre Robert, didn’t even get to start.

Gethin had a similarly dominant victory margin in heat two, which he won by 12.9s over reigning champion Mike Hailwood. The Team Surtees driver was a four-time MotoGP champion before taking to single-seater racing full-time.

His team-mate Torsten Palm edged DART Racing’s Bertil Roos for third, with Coulon’s team-mate Colin Vandervell a few seconds further back in fifth. Welsh racer Tom Pryce, best known for his sideways driving style, finished a lap down in eighth while Jo Vonlanthen and Silvio Moser – who had been business allies in racing – both retired.

Gethin’s heat win was faster than Jarier’s, and they shared the front row for the final. There was little to choose between the pair through the race, with Karlskoga’s multiple hairpins encouraging overtaking and keeping the lead two close together.

The 48-lap final (152.4km) went all the way to the chequered flag, with Jarier putting one hand on the F2 title by holding off Gethin by a tiny 0.2s after lap after lap of defending. It was a race that rewarded the estimated 40,000 fans who had packed in for Karlskoga’s return.

Palm gave more for the spectators to cheer about, as the Swede took his best ever F2 result in third place, 2.3s further back.

Australian star Tim Schenken finished fourth for Rondel Racing, an ambitious British outfit run by ex-Brabham mechanics Ron Dennis and Neil Trundle. It had made its own car for 1973, the Motul M1 (named after the lubrication company that sponsored the team and pictured above), and it had already proven it could rival the more established manufacturers in F2.

Peterson finished a disappointed fifth, but a week later was back to his brilliant best by winning F1’s Austrian Grand Prix.

Coulon was the last finisher on the lead lap, with 11 of the 20 cars seeing the chequered flag. His team-mate Vandervell was classified a lapped seventh after his engine went, while Kazato was robbed of a strong result when his driveshaft failed on the penultimate lap.

Four other drivers retired through engine trouble, with Wisell’s non-start in his heat being followed up by less than a lap of racing in the final before the end of his weekend.

In the five rounds after Karlskoga, there were two single-race events and three which combined the results of two races together. Jarier won the Mediterranean Grand Prix at Enna-Pergusa two weeks after his Karlskoga success with victory in both races there, then finished second behind Vittorio Brambilla in the Albi Grand Prix to celebrate becoming F2 champion.

Rounds where the winner was decided on an aggregate of two races continued to take place up to 1979, before the single-race format became the standard for the series.

Mark Dismore winning in Atlantics, 1992

Indy Lights held a double-header in 1980, CART’s feeder series Atlantics ran two races in its Laguna Seca season finale in 1991, ’92 & ’93, at Canada’s Trois-Rivieres street circuit in 1995 and 1996, and at its Homestead-Miami Speedway season opener in 2000, but otherwise junior single-seaters’ highest level didn’t feature multiple-race weekends until GP2 in 2005.

And after 16 years of that format, F2 finally returns to being a triple threat.

Final results (48 laps)

The post Kanonloppet 1973: The last time F2 held a three-race weekend appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: STCC

Robin Hansson and Joonas Lappalainen locked out the top two positions in both races of the 1.6 Nordic season opener at Karlskoga.

Lappalainen marked his debut in the series with double pole, but it was Hansson who vaulted into the lead on the opening lap of race one.

The Swede, who became a race winner on his guest outing in 1.6 STCC last year, managed to add another trophy to his collection, crossing the line 1.3s ahead of Lappalainen after 14 laps.

Paul Blomqvist, who took fifth in last year’s championship, rounded out the podium, ahead of Scuderia Nordica’s Oliver Soderstrom and pre-season favorite Lukas Sundahl.

Kevin Aabol took sixth ahead of Robert Svensson, while Ilmari Korpivaara led Rasmus Eriksson in eighth. Ralf Aron, recovering from an issue on lap four, rounded out the top ten.

Lappalainen made better use of his pole in race two, getting a solid start and controlling the race to take his first victory in the series. Hansson picked up a solid second, while Blomqvist took another third place.

Soderstrom was, again, fourth, narrowly leading Pontus Fredricsson. Sundahl kept Aabol, Svensson and Korpivaara to take sixth, with Eriksson completing the top ten.

Full-timer Lappalainen and series guest Hansson, who races in 2.0 NEC, jointly lead the standings with 43 points.

Race one

Race two

The post Hansson and Lappalainen take wins in 1.6 Nordic opener appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Alastair Staley/GP2 Media Service

Bird and Calado win races and Leimer scores well as Coletti and Nasr stumble at Spa-Francorchamps, meaning the top five are now separated by just 24 points with three weekends remaining…

GP2 Series

British pair net wins to close on struggling leaders

Sam Bird added an untroubled win in the Spa feature race to his victories at two other prestigious tracks this year, Monaco and Silverstone. A strategy of prime-prime in the feature race led to him falling backwards out of the points to 14th in the sprint race, but his pole and win were enough to bring him within 14 points of the championship lead with three weekends remaining. More of the same will give him a real chance of winning the title in the maiden season for the Russian Time team.

James Calado ran second in the early laps of the feature race but fell down the order with a very slow pitstop from his ART crew. He was able to rescue eighth place and the reverse grid pole position for Sunday. A good start gave him an early advantage but he lacked speed and gradually slipped into the clutches of Julian Leal as the race wore on. Calado managed to hold on, recording his first win since Hockenheim last year. The result moves him into within a win of the points lead, ten behind Bird. If he can be on the pace over the remaining races, he can be a serious threat in the title race.

Fabio Leimer hasn’t won since Bahrain, but in Belgium he continued his consistent form of late. A fourth and a fifth gave him his seventh top-five finish from the last eight races. Now he’s just seven points off the lead, maintaining such results could be enough even if he can’t repeat his early-season form.

At the other end of the consistency scale, Stefano Coletti came to Spa with just one points finish from the past six races. Things got off to a bad start when he qualified 20th, blaming a puncture. He made up good ground during his opening stint and was in the frame for a points finish. A slow stop set him back a little and he was then hit from behind by Dani Clos, eventually finishing down in 13th. He surged up to fifth on the first lap of the sprint race but had to pit off his option tyres halfway through, dropping him to the rear.

Nasr’s move on Palmer (10) ended in disaster (Photo: Alastair Staley/GP2 Media Service)

Despite another point-less weekend, Coletti lost just one of the six points he had in hand over closest rival Felipe Nasr. The Brazilian qualified an uncharacteristically low tenth but was making his way up the order until an ambitious dive on his team-mate Jolyon Palmer at La Source went wrong and caused his retirement. As usual when Nasr ends up down the order he fought back to claim the final point, although only after Tom Dillmann was penalised for cutting the final chicane when under attack from Nasr.

Outside of the five title contenders, Marcus Ericsson followed his win in the Nurburgring feature race and second in Hungary with another second at Spa, ahead of Alexander Rossi who finally returned to the podium for the first time since his debut in Bahrain. In the sprint race Adrian Quaife-Hobbs proved he’s got more than just budget after he forced Robin Frijns out at Hilmer in Hungary by finishing third on the tail of Calado and Leal having gone forward from tenth on the grid. Frijns returned this weekend in the team’s other seat but, after finishing one spot ahead of Quaife-Hobbs on Saturday, lasted just one lap on Sunday before his driveshaft failed.

Report: Bird claims straightforward win in Spa feature race

Report: Calado holds on to end win drought in Spa sprint

Next round: Monza, 7/8 September

GP3 Series

Regalia and Daly capitalise on Ellinas misfortune, Kvyat and Sims win

Facu Regalia is the surprise GP3 points leader with two weekends to go thanks to two third-place finishes at Spa. ART team-mate Conor Daly similarly notched up his fourth and fifth top-three finishes of the year with a pair of second places in Belgium. That moves into the American into second in the standings, 14 points behind Regalia.

Double podiums for Regalia (chasing) and Daly have put them in pole position in the title race (Photo: Alastair Staley/GP3 Media Service)

The ART pair took advantage of a pretty miserable weekend for Tio Ellinas. The Cypriot had qualified a reasonable-enough fifth but struggled to get away at the start and fell down the order. He did however produce a superb fightback to claim eighth place and the reverse grid pole for Sunday. This time he got a good launch and led the field down to La Source. However, Melville McKee was trying to make up for a poor getaway from alongside on the front row and locked up his brakes, careering into Ellinas and giving the Marussia man terminal damage. He’s now 20 points in arrears of Regalia with two weekends left.

Daniil Kvyat took a maiden GP3 win in race one after jumping pole-sitter and Red Bull stable-mate Carlos Sainz at the start. Added to a sixth in race two, Kvyat is up to fifth in the points, five behind Kevin Korjus (fourth and fifth in the two Spa races) and seven behind Ellinas.

Sainz was running third on Saturday until Jack Harvey managed to turn what should have been a straightforward overtake into Les Combes into a catastrophic accident from which he was able to escape unharmed. A double retirement however drops him to seventh in the points, still tied with Aaro Vainio who also failed to score after a puncture in race one and a last-lap clash with Luis Sa Silva in race two that led to a grid penalty for Monza.

Alexander Sims was a late replacement at Carlin for Eric Lichtenstein, who was withdrawn by his backers Velociudad after results had failed to match their unrealistic expectations. After beating Carlin regular Nick Yelloly to fifth in race one, he took advantage of the Ellinas-McKee collision to comfortably win race two.

Report: Kvyat takes maiden GP3 win in safety car-marred Spa race

Report: Sims benefits from McKee taking out Ellinas to win for Carlin

Next round: Monza, 7/8 September

Formula Ford GB

Maranzana gives Cammish a run for his money in Scotland

Cammish and Maranzana (Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography)

Dan Cammish was denied a pole position for only the second time this season at Knockhill when Nico Maranzana managed a quicker second-fastest time. After Cammish had seen off the Argentine rookie’s challenge in race one, he was given his hardest race of the season in race two. Maranzana made a good start and opened up a two second gap, but Cammish was able to reel him back in. They twice switched positions before Cammish got the move done when Maranzana went off. Cammish led from the front again in race three to extend his unbeaten run to 21 races.

He will seal the title next time out at Rockingham if he can maintain his current advantage over Maranzana, whose second-place in race three moved him ahead of Harrison Scott in the fight for the runner-up spot. Scott has been the nearest man to Cammish over the past few meetings but was less competitive north of the border and had to do make do with a third, a fourth and a fifth. Sam Brabham and Jayde Kruger made the podium in his absences.

Report: Cammish sees off Maranzana threat to win first Knockhill race

Report: Cammish overhauls Maranzana to realise 20/20 vision

Report: Cammish gets back to dominating in third Knockhill race

Next round: Rockingham, 14/15 September

F3 Sudamericana

Etman and Guimaraes take Curitiba wins

Bruno Etman claimed overall victory in the first of the F3 Sudamericana races at Curitiba in his 2001-spec B class car, leading from start to finish. Raphael Raucci finished second to bag full points for the A class and extend his championship lead. Etman’s nearest B class rival Artur Fortunato was third.

British F3 regular Felipe Guimaraes was eliminated in a first corner clash but bounced back to win race two. Raucci finished second, giving him a 17 point lead over Guimaraes in the championship. 15-year-old Fortunato completed a double overall podium.

Next round: Brasilia, 28/29 September

Formula Renault 1.6 Sweden

Blomqvist gets first race win, Johansson retains lead despite roll

Johansson got away from this with just some gravel in his mouth and his points lead intact (Photo: STCC)

Paul Blomqvist, younger brother of FIA F3 European Championship racer Tom, scored his first win in cars in the first race at Karlskoga.?Martin Rump?had been due to start from pole but had to start from the pits, effectively promoting Blomqvist to pole. Lukas Sundahl finished second before going on to win race two ahead of Blomqvist.

Kevin Aabol?completed the race one podium ahead of points leader Erik Johansson, who then rolled out of race two after contact with Pontus Fredricsson. After eventually retiring from race one, Rump came through to finish third in race two. With one weekend remaining, Johansson retains the points lead, with Sundahl and Rump both 12 points behind.

Next round: Mantorp Park, 20/21 September

PaddockScout Driver of the Weekend

Conor Daly

A pair of second-places has significantly boosted the American’s title hopes. He might have been in a position to challenge for the win in race two from seventh on the grid had he not been stuck behind the damaged McKee until he served his penalty.

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