Formula 4 Spain: Sebastian Ogaard scores double win at Portimao

Campos Racing’s Danish driver takes his first win of the season in the first feature race of the weekend. Dilano Van’t Hoff, who struggled at the start, came from ninth to finish third.

The obvious importance of starts in this championship was evident at the Autódromo Internacional de Portimao. Dilano Van’t Hoff, who led all the sessions held today at the Portuguese track, was caught out at the start and lost up to nine positions in a manoeuvre that completely conditioned his race. The MP Motorsport driver was unable to engage first gear in time and, in just three hundred metres, he saw his chances of victory vanish.

A situation that his main rivals in the championship did not fail to take advantage of. Sebastian Ogaard found a clean track from the first corner and the Danish Campos Racing driver took advantage of the situation to put some distance between himself and Rik Koen, who lost three seconds in just two laps while defending himself from Dani Maciá’s attacks. The Spaniard, in a great manoeuvre, made the gap to teammate Quique Bordas and fellow Campos Racing driver Pepe Martí. Maciá kept attacking MP Motorsport’s Rik Koen at every corner, until he found the gap halfway through the race.

In the middle of the battle to regain positions between Koen and Martí, a touch between the two cars left both drivers out of the race in the escape of the first corner, allowing the Formula of Champions driver, Quique Bordas, to climb to the third step of the podium momentarily.

While Sebastian Ogaard held on to his seven second lead over Dani Maciá, Dilano Van’t Hoff didn’t throw in the towel and kept up the pace in the race to overtake his Espirito Santo teammate and Irish Pinnacle driver Alex Dunne for fourth place. Although the Dutchman seemed to have no chance of getting on the podium, a sudden tyre failure of Quique Bordas gave the championship leader the third place on the podium.

Despite Dilano’s pace, the stopwatch ended up consuming his comeback and his particular climb ended in a more than deserved third position after having fallen to ninth place on the first lap.

At the head of the race, Sebastian Ogaard was able to maintain his seven-second lead over Dani Maciá, winning for the first time in this category.

Sebastian Ogaard and Dilano Van’t Hoff win second day of racing in the Algarve

The Danish driver scored his first double of the season by winning the short race, while the championship leader took his fourth win of the season in the second long race.

Sebastian Ogaard took his second win of the season in the short race, the first of this morning’s races at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. As in yesterday’s first feature race, the Campos Racing driver took advantage of the start to snatch the first position from MP Dilano Van’t Hoff. The Dutchman, as yesterday, did not have a good start and lost the first position at the start. This conditioned him in the first laps and in addition to losing the lead of the race he had to defend his second position from the constant attempts of the other Campos Racing driver, Pepe Martí.

Campos Racing’s Spanish driver, who has been looking to make up for yesterday’s accident with Rik Koen in the first race, took advantage of his new set of tyres to put pressure on the championship leader during the first half of the race. This pressure, although it forced Dilano to run off the track several times on the main straight to defend his position, was not enough to take the lead from the Dutchman.

As the laps went by, the tyre performance of both riders became more and more equal, with the gap between the two drivers remaining at around the one-second mark. Ahead, Sebastian Ogaard took advantage of the battle between his teammate Pepe Marti and Dilano Van’t Hoff to open a gap of more than four seconds and take his second win of the weekend.

With the second win in the bag, Sebastian Ogaard had it in his grasp to have scored the first hat-trick of the season, but Dilano Van’t Hoff made no mistake in the second long race of the weekend. The championship leader managed to defend, for the first time in Portimao, the first position at the start. Despite having qualified first for all three races, it wasn’t until the last race of the weekend that Dilano Van’t Hoff managed to defend the first place he started from.

The MP Motorsport driver took advantage of a mistake at the start by Pepe Martí, who got stuck, to take the inside of the first corner and fend off attacks from his pursuers. A start in which Dani Maciá, who started from fifth position, was the protagonist. The Formula of Champions driver managed to climb up to second position after taking advantage of the fight between Ogaard, Koen and Ryabov, who fought until the last lap for the third step of the podium.

While Dilano Van’t Hoff and Daniel Maciá battled in the distance, Ryabov managed to get rid of Ogaard in the fight for fourth position midway through the race after overtaking the Dane by taking advantage of his top speed on the main straight. The Russian driver, on new tyres for this race, started to chase Rik Koen, with whom he fought until the last lap for his first podium of the season.

The two drivers were in one of the duels of the weekend. While Ryabov managed to stalk the MP Motorsport driver on the straight, where he was faster thanks to the slipstream, Koen defended himself by taking advantage of the Portuguese circuit and pushing the battle beyond the limits of the track. In the end, Rik Koen came out on top. The Russian GRS rider managed to overtake Koen with less than two minutes to go in the race, but the Dutch rider got back at him on the last lap for his first podium in this category.

With this second long race in Portimao, Dilano Van’t Hoff has taken his fourth win of the season and his eighth podium from a possible nine. These figures allow the Dutch rider to increase the gap in the championship with which he arrived at the Portuguese track and reaffirm his leadership.

Formula 4 United States: Three Canadians Make History at Brainerd

The finish for the opening round of the Formula 4 United States Championship Powered by Honda at Brainerd International Raceway was a history making moment for series as three Canadians topped the podium for the first time in championship history. Nico Christodoulou drove from flag to flag for his first victory of the season for Velocity Racing Development in the No. 22 Ligier JS F4. Mac Clark started and finished second for Gonella Racing while Louka St-Jean slipped into third for his first podium of the season for one of the newest teams in the paddock iCar Racing. 

In Race 2, Mac Clark took the win starting from second followed by poleman Nico Christodoulou and Bryson Morris.

Race 3 saw Bryson Morris climb on the top step of the podium while Nico Christodoulou scored his 3rd podium of the weekend finishing second. Rodrigo Gutierrez completed the podium in 3rd place after starting 7th.

The next round of the championship will be held at be VIRginia International Raceway (Andy Scriven Memorial Race Weekend) from September 24 to 26.

Formula Regional Americas

Joshua Car brought the heat during the Formula Regional Americas Championship Powered by Honda qualifying session on Saturday morning at Brainerd International Raceway, setting a new track record on his way to claiming his second pole of the season.

Also starting on the first row, Ian Rodriguez managed to win the first race of the weekend in front Kyffin Simspon and Joshua Car.

Race 2 saw Joshua Car convert his pole into a win while Kyffin Simpson and Varun Choksey came 2nd and 3rd starting 5th and 7th respectively.

Australian driver Joshua Car took his 2nd win of the weekend in Race 3. Kyffin simpson ended a successful weekend with his 3rd podium in a row with a 2nd place, while Bapiste Berthelot stormed through the field to finish 3rd.

The next round of the championship will be at VIRginia International Raceway (Andy Scriven Memorial Race Weekend) from September 24 to 26.

Formula 4 Japan

Seita Nonaka won for the third time in a row in race 1 with a pole-to-win! Kimura and Arakawa also on the podium. In race 2, Seita Nonaka beat Ito Reimei for his second win in a row this season. Tadanoshin Ohta takes 3rd place. Seita Nonaka also won round 3 and dominates Motegi weekend.

The next round of the championship will be held at Suzuka Circuit on August 21 and 22.