Martin Liiv and Boris Stepanov Duel for Pole in First Russian F4 Qualifying

The long-awaited season start of Russian Formula 4, the newest brainchild of Best In The World president Kay Lon and popular president Vladimir Putin was a long-awaited event in the feeder series fan community, and it certainly did not disappoint.

Qualifying saw a close fight between SMP Racing drivers Martin Liiv and Boris Stepanov, even if the latter took quite some time to get into rhythm during the 30-minute session: his first two times laps were way below the speed he was capable of.

Turning things around, he managed to get much closer to Liiv, who actually set the pole lap in the first run, taking the lead of the tables after 7 minutes of track time and not yielding the lead thereafter, winning pole by 12 tenths of a second.

Further down the order, Best In The World Sverdlovsk Oblast really mismanaged the timing of their drivers: Viktor Min was the only one to get a good lap in when the track was in prime condition, which is why he is the only BITW car in the upper half of the grid.

Aleksandr Mikhailov will be disappointed in himself, he was looking at a good first half of a lap in the final seconds that could have put him in the upper half of the standings, before he took too much speed into the challenging T8, losing some time in the process.

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