Race after race, the leader of the French F4 Championship continues to confirm his speed. During the 3rd round in Belgium, Guillaume Bouzar was dominant in the qualifying session, securing a perfect double pole position for the remainder of the event. He built up his pace slowly but surely, without overstressing his tires in the first 4-5 laps, before going on the attack.
Racing on home soil, the Belgian Thibaut Ramaekers was the first to set a benchmark time of 2:24.963, ahead of the Israeli Yuval Rosen (2:25.067). The following lap, several young academy drivers successively broke the 1:25 barrier, including Matthéo Dauvergne in 1:24.650, Hugo Herrouin in 1:24.697, Tom Dussol in 1:24.750, and the American Maverick McKenna in 1:24.931.
Ramaekers then regained the upper hand, but it was truly in the middle of the session that everything was decided with Bouzar setting the fastest time of 1:23.770. The latter completed two other excellent laps, ensuring he would start on the inside of the front row for both Race 1 and Race 3. Only Ramaekers dropped below the 1:24 mark to immediately secure 2nd position. Herrouin then stepped up his pace to take 3rd place, even managing to split Bouzar and Ramaekers in the ranking of second-best lap times which determines the grid for Race 3.
On his very last lap, the Japanese driver Kota Tsuchihashi moved up to 4th in the standings, with a tiny advantage of 57 thousandths of a second over Tom Dussol. It was also at the very end of the session that Oscar Goudchaux managed to climb to 6th, ahead of Lilian Soares, currently 3rd in the Championship. McKenna and Dauvergne slipped to 8th and 9th positions ahead of Rosen, who will have the opportunity to start from pole in Race 2 thanks to the reverse grid principle applied to the top 10 from the session.
Behind Jack Iliffe, Lisa Billard classified 12th as the top female driver. The Canadian Autumn Fisher and the Moroccan Sofia Zanfari will be her closest rivals on the starting grid for Race 1.
The starting grid for Race 3 will therefore look slightly different from the first. Behind the leading trio of Bouzar, Herrouin, and Ramaekers, we will find Tsuchihashi, Dauvergne, and McKenna.
Race schedule
Race 1: Saturday, June 20, 11:45 – 12:20
Race 2: Saturday, June 20, 17:50 – 18:25
Race 3: Sunday, June 21, 10:40 – 11:15
