By winning Race 3 at Nogaro, Jules Caranta completed an excellent event, taking the lead of the French F4 Championship ahead of two drivers who also made a strong impression during the Easter Cup: Yani Stevenheydens and Taito Kato.
After a late Sunday disrupted by the weather, the sun was back out on Monday morning for the final race of the meeting, with plenty of action at all levels of the field. The young hopefuls of the FFSA Academy were all determined to finish on a high. The strategy chosen by the drivers in terms of tyres and the two appearances of the safety car added spice to the race and several twists and turns.
Stevenheydens still very competitive
Based on each driver’s best second lap in Qualifying, the grid for Race 3 saw Belgian Yani Stevenydens take pole position with Frenchman Jules Caranta alongside him, followed by Germany’s Montego Maassen and Jules Roussel on the second row. At the end of the first lap, the order was unchanged for the top three, but several changes of position took place behind. Thailand’s Rayan Caretti surprised Jules Roussel, who then lost out to Italy’s Leonardo Megna and Japan’s Taito Kato.
After an initial intervention by the safety car following an incident involving Paul Roques, the duels intensified in the field. Maassen lost a few places to drivers like Caretti and Kato, both from Asia and already well acclimatised to the FFSA Academy Championship. Just a few places behind, Luxembourg’s Chester Kieffer and Pacôme Weisenburger were pushing hard to climb back into the top six, a goal also coveted by the incisive Canadian Jason Leung.
A favourable Easter Monday for Jules Caranta
At the front, Yani Stevenheydens put in a string of fastest laps and opened up a gap ahead of a solid Jules Caranta, who managed to get away from the chasing pack. On the final lap, two consecutive incidents brought the safety car back into action. A tangle between Roussel and Weisenburger forced the latter to retire, while Karel Schulz found himself in the gravel trap after a neck-and-neck battle with Ireland’s Alex O’Grady. At the same time, the leader learned from race direction that he was going to have to deal with a five-second penalty due to an jumped start. The final grouping of cars did not do the Belgian any favours, as Stevenheydens lost both victory and a chance to salvage the podium.
In the final restart, Jules Caranta held off Caretti, who was himself busy controlling Kato, to climb to the top of the podium. Megna, Kieffer and Leung were very close to the times of the top three drivers, and took valuable points in the overall standings by finishing 4th, 5th and 6th respectively, ahead of Stevenheydens. The end of Maassen’s race was calmer, with the German managing to keep Augustin Bernier behind him. Arthur Dorison, who started in 22nd place, made a magnificent comeback to take 10th place from Dylan Estre and Andorran rider Frank Porte Ruiz.
In the overall classification, Jules Caranta left Nogaro in the lead ahead of Stevenheydens and Kato.
> Race 3 standings
1 Jules Caranta (France) with 13 laps
2 Rayan Caretti (Thailand) at 0.844
3 Taito Kato (Japan) at 1.266
4 Leonardo Megna (Italy) at 1.488
5 Chester Kieffer (Luxembourg) at 1.921
6 Jason Leung (Canada) at 2.205
7 Yani Stevenheydens (Belgium) at 2.701
8 Montego Maassen (Germany) at 3.320
9 Augustin Bernier (France) at 3.864
10 Arthur Dorison (France) at 4.664
11 Dylan Estre (France) at 5.530
12 Frank Porte Ruiz (Andorra) at 5.819
13 Enzo Caldaras (France) at 6.097
14 Louis Schlesser (France) at 6.219
15 Edouard Borgna (France) at 7.316
16 Mathilda Paatz (Germany) at 7.814
17 Jules Roussel (France) at 8.111
18 Roméo Leurs (France) at 8.636
19 Gabriel Doyle-Parfait (Great Britain) at 8.994
20 Arjun Chheda (India) at 10.359
21 Tom Le Brech (France) at 10.836
22 Alex O’Grady (Ireland) at 35.837
23 Pacôme Weisenburger (France) with 9 laps
24 Karel Schulz (France) with 8 laps
25 Paul Roques (France) with 1 lap
MT: Stevenheydens in 1:26.502 (avg. 151.3 km/h)
> Provisional Championship standings
1 Caranta 40 pts, 2 Stevenheydens 35 pts, 3 Kato 33 pts, 4 Caretti 28 pts, 5 Megna 20 pts, 6 Leung 14 pts, 7 Estre 12 pts, 8 Kieffer 11 pts, 9 Maasen and Schulz 4 pts, 11 Bernier and Roussel 2 pts, 13 Dorison 1 pt.
