After a thrilling race on Saturday at the “Jumbo Race Festival” in Zandvoort race 4 of the BOSS GP season 2017 on Sunday had some surprises too. The podium of the FORMULA class however after 14 laps was the same as the day before, Johann Ledermair (Ledermair Motorsport) clearly dominating the grid, followed by Mahaveer Raghunathan (Coloni Motorsport) and Salvatore de Plano (MM International Motorsport). Unfortunately both drivers of the OPEN class, Marijn and Rinus van Kalmthout (both Mansell Motorsport) dropped out of the race early due to a crash and technical reasons.
While Johann Ledermair could defend his pole position in his Dallara GP2 into the first curve, the “Tarzanbocht”, against attacking Rinus van Kalmthout in a Dallara GP2 Evo, who had started from position 2, Marijn van Kalmthout had huge trouble. After his Benetton B197 F1 got hit Kalmthout lost one of his tyres at the start straight, what meant a much to early out for the local hero. Couple of laps under yellow flag and safety car phase were following for the grid, drivers even had to pass the pit lane again, since the straight lane was blocked by rescue operation for Kalmthouts Benetton. “It was not too easy, to avoid overheating of the engines and keeping the tyres on the neccessary temperatures”, Johann Ledermair explained the difficult conditions at the first phase of the race.
Already during the safety car phase Rinus van Kalmthouth, the only left driver of the OPEN class in the grid, had to turn back to the box too, due to technical problems with his Dallara GP2 Evo. So season race 4 turned out to an exclusively FORMULA class race.
Crashing on the start straight line directly after the start Marijn van Kalmthout unfortunately dropped out of the race early.
When the safety car had left and the track finally was open for pure racing again, the “usual suspects” were competing for the podium. Ledermair kept the lead and grabbed P1, driving his best lap time in round 5 with 1:25.591 min. The Austrian was closely followed by Mahaveer Raghunathan, who showed his best lap time in round 10 with 1:27.675 min. The 18 years old Indian was happy with his performance and P2, despite he looked ahead to the next races (Paul Ricard Circuit/France, 10-11/06/2017) directly after the award ceremony. “The start of todays race was not that easy, but everything worked out well. Finally it was a tough race again, but I did my best. The goal was, to increase speed and improve the lap record from yesterdays race. That worked out well, so finally I’m happy with the performance this week and my overall results”, Raghunathan explained.
With a huge smile on his face Salvatore de Plano (MM International Motorsport) climbed onto the podium. After P3 on saturday he defended this position at race 2 and stressed out his great performance this weekend. “The track was a huge challenge to go for. I have never raced in Zandvoort before, so my focus on the track and its characteristics was immense”, de Plano told us after the race and started to rave about the track. “It is amazing, but you have to now the track very well, to have a good race. So I’m really happy with my result this weekend, since I could make it twice onto the podium and didn’t loose to many points in the championship. The car was perfect and I reached my personal goal, to come as close as possible to position 2.” As Raghunathan also de Plano wants to confirm his good shape on the track in Le Castellet at Paul Ricard in June.
Champagne in Zandvoort 2017 after season race 4.
The podium was followed by Marc Fagionatto (Zig-Zag) on position 4, Florian Schnitzenbaumer (5., Top Speed), Henk de Boer (6., De Boer Manx), Peter Göllner (7., Speed Center), Christian Eicke (8., Speed Center), PETER (9., Easy Formula) and Karl-Heinz Becker (10., Becker Motorsport). Becker just finished eleven laps, having technical issues in his last lap which forced him to finish the race. “We don’t know yet, what caused the problems. We have to analyse this issue”, Becker told after the race.
The results of season race 4 in Zandvoort 2017.
Meanwhile winning Ledermair was satisfied with his progess during the race: “After an challenging start I was able, to control the race and bring it home safely. There were some factors, I had to pay my attention especially during the safety car phase, but everything worked out well. So at the end, I’m very happy with that clear win.” Besides and optimum of a race weekend Ledermair and his team take some “homework” back to Austria, they will work on until the next race. “We collected lots of data this weekend, we have to analyze. Of course we wont sit back now, but continue our work and make any effort, to increase the speed further on”, the ambitious youngster is looking into the future.
Happy winner of race 3 and 4 at the race weekend in Zandvoort 2017.
Next station for the BOSS GP championship 2017 is set already in three weeks. Circuit Paul Ricard in France, Le Castellet, will be the host with its “GT OPEN & EUROFORMULA OPEN”.
MORE:
Photo gallery race weekend Zandvoort: bossgp.com/gallery/zandvoort-jumbo-racedagen
Report of first race in Zandvoort: bossgp.com/first-race-johann-ledermair-bringing-the-sensation-to-zandvoort
Report of Qualifying in Zandvoort: bossgp.com/qualifying-in-zandvoort-hell-of-laptimes-for-the-van-kalmthouts
Report of second free practice in Zandvoort: bossgp.com/second-free-practice-results-ledermair-and-raghunathan-step-up-the-speed
Report of first free practice in Zandvoort: bossgp.com/first-free-practice-marijn-van-kalmthout-shows-his-class
Detailed statistics of practices and qualifying: Results race 1 Zandvoort 2017.
