The drivers in the French F4 Championship competed in the first race in the late afternoon of Saturday 10th June. After dominating qualifying Rougier was on pole position on the grid. As soon as the lights went out he immediately pulled away and at the chequered flag the gap between him and Jean was four seconds.
The latter started in fourth place and drove a storming race as he fought his way up to second on the podium emulated by Gonzalez who came home third after 20-minutes racing. These on-track battles thrilled the Belgian spectators who were treated to some great overtaking moves.
Victor Martins and Jean-Baptiste Mela, second and third on the grid, each fell back a place and saw the flag in fourth and fifth spots. Overall it wasn’t a bad result as Martins hasn’t lost contact with Rougier and Mela has moved up into seventh place overall.
Christian Muñoz and Hugo Chevalier finished sixth and seventh after overtaking drivers who started in front of them. Rounding out the top 10 were Casper Røes, Stuart White and Thomas Drouet. The South African driver was unable to get the best out of his car, which he hopes to do in races 2 and 3 on Sunday 11th June. Thomas Drouet started 12th and managed to fight his way up to 10th scoring the final point awarded in the overall classification.
Florian Venturi finished just shy of the points after a fighting drive which saw him clinch 11th place a few minutes before the chequered flag. Ugo de Wilde finished 12th two seconds behind Venturi, a good performance for the youngest driver in this year’s championship. Aldo Festante and Marvin Klein had a ding-dong scrap with the Italian coming out on top as they crossed the finishing line.
Amaury Cordeel, who received tremendous encouragement at this meeting not far from his home, was unable to do any better than 15e at the end of the opening race. Antoine Horemans finished his maiden race in a single-seater – a first for the youngster! The grid for the start of race 2 on Sunday morning will see Thomas Drouet on pole from Stuart White and Casper Røes.
Classification of race 1 – French F4 Championship at Spa
Arthur ROUGIER (25 points)
Pierre-Alexandre JEAN (18 points)
Javier GONZALEZ (15 points)
Victor MARTINS (12 points)
Jean-Baptiste MELA (10 points)
Christian MUÑOZ (8 points)
Hugo CHEVALIER (6 points)
Casper ROES ANDERSEN (4 points)
Stuart WHITE (2 points)
Thomas DROUET (1 point)
Florian VENTURI
Ugo DE WILDE
Aldo FESTANTE
Marvin KLEIN
Amaury CORDEEL
Antoine HOREMANS
Fastest lap in the race: Javier GONZALEZ (+1point)