Around six months after his first F4 win, Matthéo Dauvergne repeated the feat by beating pole-sitter Kota Tsuchihashi at the Circuit Paul Ricard in Race 1, before Tom Dussol claimed his very first victory after beating Maverick McKenna in Race 2. Behind French Champion Guillaume Bouzar, the race for the remaining podium places in the FFSA Academy remains wide open as the French F4 Championship heads into its final race.
Full of confidence following his double victory at Lédenon, Japan’s Kota Tsuchihashi secured another podium finish by a narrow margin of 9 thousandths of a second ahead of France’s Matthéo Dauvergne, who finished just one thousandth of a second ahead of Australia’s Francis Lewis. Having already secured the French Championship title ahead of this final round in the Var, Guillaume Bouzar finished 6th behind drivers who had given him a run for his money in 2026, such as Lilian Soares and the Belgian Thibaut Ramaekers.
Matthéo Dauvergne unstoppable in Race 1
The first race of the weekend at Le Castellet proved to be fiercely contested at every level. Despite his flawless start and a mistake-free opening to the race, Kota Tsuchihashi saw Matthéo Dauvergne closing in behind him. Spurred on by his fastest lap of the race, the driver from Normandy managed to win his duel with the Japanese driver to secure his second F4 victory following his win at Nogaro earlier in the season. Behind them, Thibaut Ramaekers overtook Lewis Francis on lap 4, before being overtaken once again by the Australian, who was delighted to return to the podium.
Starting 12th on the grid, Oscar Goudchaux capitalised on his aggressive tyre strategy. After several overtakes, he rounded off the top five ahead of two drivers who provided the spectacle in the chasing pack: the American Maverick McKenna and Tom Dussol, who finished in that order in 6th and 7th places. A collision between Guillaume Bouzar and Lilian Soares also allowed them to gain two places. Poland’s Wojciech Woda delivered his best performance of the season by fighting his way up to 9th place behind Israel’s Yuval Rosen. The final point that Jules Avril had been hoping for went to Nicolas Pasquier.
Race 2: Tom Dussol leads from start to finish to claim his first win
A local to the venue (he lives in Aix-en-Provence), Tom Dussol handled the pressure perfectly in a race that saw several twists and turns. Starting from pole position, he got off to a flawless start and handled the restarts following the two safety car deployments with consummate skill. Maverick McKenna, who won his duel against Guillaume Bouzar, tried hard to put pressure on him, but Dussol held firm to take victory at Paul Ricard ahead of his rivals on the day, McKenna and Bouzar. Starting 9th, Matthéo Dauvergne staged a brilliant comeback to finish 4th ahead of Lilian Soares, who scored vital points in the French Championship. Lewis Francis quickly got the better of Thibaut Ramaekers and held onto his lead until the end to take 6th place. Kota Tsuchihashi finished 8th. A racing incident caused Hugo Herrouin to drop back, despite starting from the front row. Everything would therefore be decided in Race 3 for the title of French Vice-Champion.
Female Trophy: The title fight tightens between Annabelle Brian and Clara Stiebleichinger
The first French Women’s Formula 4 Champion in history will be crowned this weekend. Claiming two controlled, authoritative victories in the class, Austria’s Clara Stiebleichinger drastically reduced the points gap to Annabelle Brian. The Dutch driver pushed hard nonetheless, securing consecutive 2nd and 3rd-place finishes. Race 3 will now be the ultimate decider for the championship crown.
After setting the benchmark in qualifying, Jade Jacquet experienced a turbulent weekend marred by incidents at the start of each race. A post-race penalty wiped out her impressive charge in Race 1, but she bounced back to claim a hard-fought 2nd place in Race 2. Finishing behind Morocco’s Sofia Zanfari and Angelina Proenca, Héloïse Goldberg secured 4th place, keeping the top three firmly within her sights.
> Qualifying session: 1 Tsuchihashi 2:07.587, 2 Dauvergne 2:07.596, 3 Francis 2:07.597, 4 Soares 2:07.618, 5 Ramaekers 2:07.681, 6 Bouzar 2:07.714, 7 McKenna 2:07.798, 8 Rosen 2:07.888, 9 Herrouin 2:07.912, 10 Dussol 2:08.049, etc.
> Women’s Qualifying session: 1 Jacquet 2:08.685, 2 Stiebleichinger 2:09.145, 3 Goldberg 2:09.446, 4 Brian 2:09.469, 5 Proenca 2:09.589, etc.
> Race 1 results
1 Matthéo Dauvergne (France) with 14 laps
2 Kota Tsuchihashi (Japan) 4.233 behind
3 Lewis Francis (Australia) 5.739 behind
4 Thibaut Ramaekers (Belgium) 11.291 behind
5 Oscar Goudchaux (France) 17.093 behind
6 Maverick McKenna (USA) at 17.628
7 Tom Dussol (France) at 18.951
8 Yuval Rosen (Israel) at 21.973
9 Wojciech Woda (Poland) at 22.435
10 Nicolas Pasquier (France) at 27.573
11 Jules Avril (France) at 28.153
12 Clara Stiebleichinger (Austria) at 35.552 *
13 Arthur Eschalier (France) at 37.413
14 Thomas Senecloze (France) at 38.357
15 Paul Gleizes (France) at 38.748
16 Annabelle Brian (Netherlands) at 42.469 *
17 Gabriel Canal (France) at 43.172
18 Hugo Herrouin (France) at 43.722
19 Kyler Cheezum (USA) at 45.759
20 Sofia Zanfari (Morocco) at 47.026 *
21 Angelina Proenca (France) at 47.193 *
22 Héloïse Goldberg (France) at 47.475 *
23 Sasha Beisemann (Paraguay) at 53.949
24 Autumn Fisher (Canada) at 57.749 *
25 Jack Iliffe (USA) at 1:03.740
26 Arthur Barbe (France) at 1:05599
27 Jade Jacquet (France) at 1:16.524 *
28 Guillaume Bouzar (France) with 11 laps
29 Lilian Soares (France) with 10 laps
30 Shane Chandaria (Kenya) with 5 laps
FL: Dauvergne 2:08.034 (avg. 163.6 km/h)
* Women
> Women’s Race 1
1 Clara Stiebleichinger (Austria)
2 Annabelle Brian (Netherlands)
3 Sofia Zanfari (Morocco)
4 Angelina Proenca (France)
5 Héloïse Goldberg (France)
6 Autumn Fisher (Canada)
7 Jade Jacquet (France)
> Race 2 Standings
1 Tom Dussol (France) with 12 laps
2 Maverick McKenna (USA) at 0.669
3 Guillaume Bouzar (France) at 1.627
4 Matthéo Dauvergne (France) at 2.487
5 Lilian Soares (France) at 5.768
6 Lewis Francis (Australia) at 6.164
7 Thibaut Ramaekers (Belgium) at 6.478
8 Kota Tsuchihashi (Japan) at 7.535
9 Shane Chandaria (Kenya) at 10.986
10 Hugo Herrouin (France) at 14.961
11 Jules Avril (France) at 16.357
12 Sasha Beisemann (Paraguay) at 17.017
13 Gabriel Canal (France) at 17.165
14 Jack Iliffe (USA) at 19.103
15 Paul Gleizes (France) at 19.260
16 Clara Stiebleichinger (Austria) at 19.970 *
17 Jade Jacquet (France) at 20.221 *
18 Annabelle Brian (Netherlands) at 20.928 *
19 Arthur Barbe (France) at 21.388
20 Oscar Goudchaux (France) at 22.199
21 Héloïse Goldberg (France) at 23.103 *
22 Kyler Cheezum (USA) at 23.111
23 Wojciech Woda (Poland) at 47.287
24 Sofia Zanfari (Morocco) with 6 laps *
25 Autumn Fisher (Canada) with 4 laps *
26 Angelina Proenca (France) with 4 laps *
27 Yuval Rosen (Israel) with 3 laps
28 Arthur Eschalier (France), DNF
29 Thomas Senecloze (France), DNF
30 Nicolas Pasquier (France), DNF
FL: Dauvergne in 2:08.611 (avg. 162.9 km/h)
> Women’s Race 2
1 Clara Stiebleichinger (Austria)
2 Jade Jacquet (France)
3 Annabelle Brian (Netherlands)
4 Héloïse Goldberg (France)
5 Sofia Zanfari (Morocco)
6 Autumn Fisher (Canada)
7 Angelina Proenca (France)
> Race 3 : Sunday 20 September (10:30 – 11:00)
