Starting from pole position and winning Race 3 – Guillaume Bouzar could not have hoped for a better end to the weekend at Spa Francorchamps, following his two 2nd-place finishes the day before. The 17-year-old French prospect ends the first half of the season with a significant lead over Belgium’s Thibaut Ramaekers, who secured his fifth podium of the season in the thrilling FIA-certified French F4 Championship.
Bouzar dominates at the start, both before and after the safety car
Guillaume Bouzar on the inside of the front row alongside Hugo Herrouin, followed by Belgium’s Thibaut Ramaekers and Japan’s Kota Tsuchihashi was the scene on the starting grid for the final race of the Belgian round, contested in summery weather. As the lights went out, Bouzar was first into the Source corner, whilst Matthéo Dauvergne and Kota Tsuchihashi got the better of Hugo Herrouin. Almost simultaneously, Herrouin suddenly dropped back due to a puncture, whilst a collision at the rear of the field involving Angelina Proenca brought out the safety car.
Shortly after the restart, Oscar Goudchaux lost a few places, notably to Lilian Soares and Yuval Rosen, the winner of Race 2. Tom Dussol attempted to join the fray, but this ended with Oscar Goudchaux running off the track on lap 7. The safety car returned for a few minutes before letting the drivers loose for a very eventful final lap.
Bouzar held on to the lead and took the win ahead of Tsuchihashi, Ramaekers, Dauvergne and Soares. For cutting a chicane whilst overtaking, Tsuchihashi was penalised a place, allowing Ramaekers to move up to 2nd place on the podium. Having overtaken Rosen to take 6th place, Dussol was in turn handed a penalty and dropped 19 places! Lisa Billard climbed into the top 10, finishing 8th between the American Maverick McKenna and the Australian Lewis Francis. 10th place went to Nicolas Pasquier.
Championship: Bouzar continues to lead the way ahead of Ramaekers
Bouzar arrived in Belgium with a 47-point lead and left with 58, as the FFSA Academy French Championship prepares to enter the second half of the season. He now has four wins to his name. The points lost by Thibaut Ramaekers in Race 2, following his victory in Race 1, helped tip the balance in favour of the Frenchman. The Belgian intends to make the most of the next three rounds to close the gap on his rival. Hugo Herrouin hopes to do the same, though he would have preferred a more favourable outcome at Spa Francorchamps. He did, however, move up a place at the expense of Lilian Soares. Japan’s Kota Tsuchihashi enjoyed his best weekend of the season and has climbed back up to 5th place.
Women’s Championship: A race still to be decided
Behind Lisa Billard, the top-placed woman in Race 3, the Austrian Clara Stiebleichinger confirmed her excellent weekend by finishing 2nd ahead of the Canadian Autumn Fisher and the Moroccan Sofia Zanfari, who moved up eight places after getting off to a brilliant start. Given that not all female drivers score points due to their involvement in other championships, Stiebleichinger took the opportunity to move to the top of the standings ahead of Annabelle Brian, Angelina Proenca and Héloïse Goldberg.
> Race 3 Standings
1 Guillaume Bouzar (France) with 9 laps
2 Thibaut Ramaekers (Belgium) at 1.416
3 Kota Tsuchihashi (Japan) at 0.920 +1 place
4 Matthéo Dauvergne (France) at 2.084
5 Lilian Soares (France) at 2.732
6 Yuval Rosen (Israel) at 3.215
7 Maverick Mckenna (USA) at 4.315
8 Lisa Billard (France) at 4.661 *
9 Lewis Francis (Australia) at 5.844
10 Nicolas Pasquier (France) at 6.002
11 Clara Stiebleichinger (Austria) at 6.205
12 Thomas Senecloze (France) at 6.443
13 Jack Iliffe (USA) at 7.161
14 Jules Avril (France) at 7.391
15 Kyler Cheezum (USA) at 8.637
16 Paul Gleizes (France) at 8.813
17 Autumn Fisher (Canada) at 9.173 *
18 Sofia Zanfari (Morocco) at 9.629
19 Annabelle Brian (Netherlands) at 9.920 *
20 Hugo Herrouin (France) at 10.177
21 Sasha Beisemann (Paraguay) at 11.319
22 Arthur Eschalier (France) at 11.582
23 Héloïse Goldberg (France) at 13.178 *
24 Ginevra Panzeri (Italy) at 13.487 *
25 Tom Dussol (France) at 29.956
26 Jade Jacquet (France) at 39.935 *
27 Shane Chandaria (Kenya) 1 lap down
28 Oscar Goudchaux (France) 3 laps down
29 Wojciech Woda (Poland) 3 laps down
30 Angelina Proenca (France) 0 laps behind *
ML: Ramaekers (BEL) 2:24.713 (avg. 174.2 km/h)
* Women’s
> Women’s Race 3
1 Lisa Billard (France)
2 Clara Stiebleichinger (Austria)
3 Autumn Fisher (Canada)
4 Sofia Zanfari (Morocco)
5 Annabelle Brian (Netherlands)
6 Héloïse Goldberg (France)
7 Ginevra Panzeri (Italy)
8 Jade Jacquet (France)
9 Angelina Proenca (France)
> Championship standings after Spa Francorchamps
F4 Academy: 1 Bouzar 155 pts, 2 Ramaekers (BEL) 97 pts, 3 Herrouin 72 pts, 4 Soares 52 pts, 5 Tsuchihashi (JPN) 65 pts, 6 Dauvergne 58 pts, 7 Iliffe (USA) 46 pts, 8 Goudchaux 43 pts, 9 Rosen (ISR) 36 pts, 10 Francis (AUS) 31 pts, 11 Avril 28 pts, 12 Dussol 22 pts, 13 McKenna (USA) 19 pts, 14 Chandaria (KEN) 12 pts, 15 Pasquier 11 pts, 16 Helias 9 pts, 17 Eschalier 8 pts, 18 Senecloze, Stiebleichinger (AUT) and Woda (POL) 1 pt.
Women’s F4: 1 Stiebleichinger (AUT) 126 pts, 2 Brian (NED) 119 pts, 3 Proenca 115 pts, 4 Goldberg 88 pts, 5 Zanfari (MAR) 83 pts, 6 Abreu (CUB) 43 pts, etc.
