Evan Giltaire regained the lead of the 2023 French F4 Championship thanks to his two victories at Spa Francorchamps. The Frenchman dominated Race 3, while Yamakoshi fought hard to finish 2nd ahead of Peugeot and Foster.
FIA-certified and run by the FFSA Academy, the French F4 Championship made a major contribution to the spectacle offered by the Spa Euro Race meeting from June 2nd to 4th. In Race 3, Evan Giltaire quickly cut short the suspense for victory after leading from start to finish and taking the lap record. But behind him, there were battles at all levels of the field for the podium and places of honour. It wasn’t until the final bend that the hierarchy finally settled in the top 10. Once again, the Belgian circuit of Spa Francorchamps played its role as decider by clearly highlighting the main protagonists of the Championship.
Race 3: Yamakoshi and Foster put on a show
Well established on pole position, Evan Giltaire did not miss his start and dived to the lead of the pack at the Source bend. The duel between Canada’s Kevin Foster and Japan’s Hiyu Yamakoshi began within the first few metres, and Giltaire took advantage of the situation to break away, immediately depriving his rivals of any possible slipstream. His lead over Foster had already reached two seconds by the end of the second lap, and would eventually reach nine seconds at the finish line! The many spectators around the Belgian circuit and in front of their TV screens were not bored, however, with numerous overtaking manoeuvres and race incidents.
It was Louis Schlesser who was the first to drop out of the battle for the top places after starting in a promising 6th place. With a gain of four places, Enzo Peugeot was the main beneficiary of the first lap, as he was 5th behind an excellent Adrien Closmenil. Karel Schultz and Andorran driver Frank Porte Ruiz also made a good start to the race, gaining three places each to close the gap on German Tom Kalender and American Garrett Berry.
As the laps went by, Romain Andriolo began to make up the places he had lost on the first lap, while the intensity increased between Foster and Yamakoshi for 2nd place. Having got rid of Closmenil, who had to retire halfway through the race, Enzo Peugeot managed to catch up with this duo in the midst of an intense battle. The Romanian Andreï Duna’s magnificent comeback and Berry’s overtaking of Kalender were also closely watched.
Yamakoshi’s move on Foster allowed the Japanese driver to have the last word on the Canadian. In the end, Foster received a five-second penalty for having overstepped the limits of the track during the race, but this only knocked him down one place. Peugeot was delighted to join Giltaire and Yamakoshi on the podium, limiting his points deficit in the provisional Championship standings to the new leader.
Garrett Berry took a brilliant 5th place ahead of Romain Andriolo, who came from behind to beat Tom Kalender. Edgar Pierre finished the race in 8th place ahead of Duna, who was pleased to score his first points, and Karel Schultz. In a final incident, Canadian Jason Leung crashed out of the race, having been in the top 10 just a few minutes earlier.
> Next race (5 of 7): 14th-16th July 2023 at Misano (Italy)
> Race 3 standings
1 Evan Giltaire (France) with 10 laps
2 Hiyu Yamakoshi (Japan) at 9.158
3 Enzo Peugeot (France) at 10.178
4 Kevin Foster (Canada) at 14.822
5 Garrett Berry (United States) at 18.703
6 Romain Andriolo (France) at 19.980
7 Tom Kalender (Germany) at 20.618
8 Edgar Pierre (France) at 24.025
9 Andrei Duna (Romania) at 24.819
10 Karel Schulz (France) at 25.725
11 Paul Alberto (France) at 28.436
12 Pol Lopez (Spain) at 30.187
14 Enzo Richer (France) at 32.443
14 Yani Stevenheydens (Belgium) at 32.939
15 Jason Leung (Canada) at 34.064
16 Frank Porte Ruiz (Andorra) at 35.392
17 Gabriel Doyle-Parfait (Great Britain) at 36.016
18 Luca Savu (Romania) at 36.235
19 Yaroslav Veselaho (Ukraine) at 40.179
20 Joao Paulo Diaz Balesteiro (Colombia) at 44.849
21 Edouard Borgna (France) at 45.118
22 Max Reis (Germany) at 1:01.801
23 Leonardo Megna (Italy), retired on lap 10
24 Adrien Closmenil (France), retired on lap 6
25 Finn Wiebelhaus (Germany), retired on lap 2
26 Louis Schlesser (France), retired on lap 1
FL: Giltaire in 2:26.019 (avg. 172.7 km/h)
> French F4 FIA Championship (provisional after Spa Francorchamps)
1 Giltaire (FRA) 182 pts, 2 Peugeot (FRA) 168 pts, 3 Foster (CDN) 114 pts, 4 Andriolo (FRA) 109 pts, 5 Yamakoshi (JPN) 107 pts, 6 Stevenheydens (BEL) 66 pts, 7 Berry (USA) 63 pts, 8 Lopez (ESP) 52 pts, 9 Richer (FRA) 38 pts, 10 Megna (ITA) 31 pts, 11 Pierre (FRA) 25 pts, 12 Closmenil (FRA) 23 pts, 13 Kalender (DEU) 22 pts, 14 Schlesser (FRA) 16 pts, 15 Savu (ROU) 8 pts, 16 Leung (CDN) 8 pts, 17 Reis (DEU) 8 pts, 18 Veselaho (UKR) 6 pts, 19 Wiebelhaus (DEU) 6 pts, 20 Schultz (FRA) 3 pts, 21 Duna (ROU) 2 pts, 22 Alberto (FRA) 2 pts, 22 Porte Ruiz (AND) 1 pt.
