The sixth round of the F4 Spanish Championship stopped this weekend in the historical circuit of Jarama in the outskirts of Madrid. A special event reuniting the Historic F1 car and the young generation F4 drivers, with over a hundrer medias accreditated to watch the young guns races.
After the Free Practice day where Xavier Lloveras and Tuomas Haapalainen showed their pace on the new circuit, saturday started with the Qualifying.
Race 1
As the lights went off, the F4 Spanish drivers took the start of the 25min+1lap Race 1. But the drama came immediately as Antolin Gonzalez crashed and forced the Safety Car to come on track. A very short appearance as the Race started again with 18 min +1 lap to go on the clock.
Richard Verschoor took a perfect start as Tuomas Haapalainen was the biggest loser, going down to P5, leaving Tuomas Tujula and Xavier Lloveras to fight over P2.
Young Haapalainen had a stellar race as he lighted up purple sectors, passed Vartanyan for P4 and chased down Xavier Lloveras. An unfortunate contact between the two drivers had Lloveras dropping down to P8 with more than 3 seconds gap. But the Spanish driver did not give up and ended P7.
In front, Tuomas Tujula was matching Richard Verschoor’s pace as Tuomas Haapalainen was setting fastest laps after fastest laps, driving 3 tenths faster than the championship leader.
As the chequered flag was waived, Richard Verschoor scored another victory in the F4 Spanish Championship certified by FIA and became the maiden champion of the Series with five races to go.
A historical performance for the young Red Bull Junior Driver whom, at fifteen years old only, becomes the first driver to win two FIA F4 titles in the same season.
“After a good qualifying we had a good starting position for Race 1. We knew we had a good race pace, so we tried to have a good start and put a comfortable gap to Tuomas Tujula. _
Sealing the championship today is an amazing feeling, two titles in one season is everything we have worked for. Thanks to Red Bull Racing and all my oher partners for their support this season and a special thanks to MP Motorsport for their work all along the season”_ – Richard Verschoor“I had quite a good pace in Quali and it was OK, but not enough to get the pole position. About the race I had a very bad start and first lap, and lost quite a lot of positions, but then I had a very good speed and overtook two cars and finished on the podium. At the end it was a good day and the pace tells us that we can challenge again Richard and Tuomas tomorrow for Q2 and both races” – Tuomas Haapalainen
“Quali was good, we learnt a lot from yesterday. Yesterday was quite difficult with a lot understeering. I had quite a decent start and then managed to hold P2 in T1 against Xavier Lloveras. Richard had a better restart after the Safety Car, but pace wise, we were similar, so I’m confident for tomorrow” – Tuomas Tujula