Caio Collet was inspired by the Spanish atmosphere! At Jerez, for the penultimate round of the French F4 Championship, the Brazilian Collet was again successful after taking pole position. This first race of the weekend was marked by the penalty received by one of the favourites, Adam Eteki, another podium for Arthur Leclerc and the successful debut with the FFSA Academy for Alessandro Ghiretti, 3rd ahead of Theo Pourchaire, the top Junior of the day.
The trend observed during the post-summer break race at Magny-Cours in September was confirmed at Jerez de la Frontera, a circuit where many winter F1 tests organised. Collet remains more than ever the man to beat, while Leclerc and Pourchaire are looking likely holders of the season podium positions. However, the hierarchy during Race 1 took a long time to take shape, while the young academicians managed to get the measure of the difficult Spanish track, during the various free practice sessions.
Ghiretti gets noticed
Once again, the official Qualifying session turned to the advantage of the Brazilian Caio Collet, who created a gap to Adam Eteki. For his first experience in the French F4 Championship, Alessandro Ghiretti posted an encouraging 3rd fastest time ahead of Théo Pourchaire and Arthur Leclerc. At the start of Race 1, Collet was not intimidated and kept his advantage over Eteki. The Monegasque Arthur Leclerc was brilliant on the first lap by getting the better of Ghiretti and Pourchaire.
Always very quick to get into the action, Collet quickly increased the gap to the chasing pack, while Leclerc tried to take the slipstream behind Eteki and give himself a cushion against Ghiretti. A few lengths back, Pourchaire remained under threat from Reshad De Gerus, his main rival among the Juniors.
Collet from start to finish
The main feature of Race 2 occurred on lap 12, when Adam Eteki had to observe a penalty in the form of a “drive through” for having exceeded the track limits. It was a blow for the Frenchman, a contender for the overall podium of the Championship. At the forefront, Collet did not falter and won a deserved success. “My final goal is to go for the title and it’s better to do it by winning the maximum of races,” admitted the Brazilian, who took the opportunity to further increase his lead overall.
Arthur Leclerc is satisfied with his 2nd place. “I was pretty far from the Free Practice pace and I really worked hard with the FFSA Academy technicians to make progress. This happened in Qualifying, and especially in the race where I really had a very good pace. My best lap was only one-tenth from Collet’s,” commented the brother of the future Ferrari F1 driver.
On the podium at Jerez, the surprise guest was Alessandro Ghiretti. “It’s great to join the top three in my first F4 race in France, it motivates to try to do even better on Sunday,” warned the young Frenchman, while Théo Pourchaire won the Junior classification again, finishing 4th in in front of Reunion driver Reshad De Gerus.
In 8th place, the Belgian Ulysses De Pauw reached 6th place after a good start to the race. In the following places, the German Esteban Muth, the Belgian Ugo De Wilde and the French Theo Nouet fought for 12 laps.
Finishing 10th, the German O’Neill Muth will have the honour of starting in pole position on Sunday morning in Race 2, according to the reverse grid principle for the top 10. Caio Collet will then regain his pole in the afternoon on the starting grid of Race 3.
Schedule for Sunday, October 7th :
10:50 am: Race 2
3:15 pm: Race 3
