Buoyed by a first podium finish the day before, Rintaro Sato brilliantly won Race 3 after starting from 9th place. The suspense remains intact in the FIA-certified French F4 Championship between Alex Munoz and Jules Roussel. Everything will be decided at Le Mans!
On Friday, the Qualifying session allowed the top five in the Championship to secure their places on one of the first three rows of the starting grid. In the end, the expected duel between the favourites never really took place in the south of France. Many other Academy drivers joined the fight for the podium, and even victory. This was the case in Race 3 on Sunday morning, run on a dry track.
An epic start to the race
A lot happened during the first few laps. First, Malo Bolliet made a superb start to the race to take the lead on the first lap, despite starting only 4th. Plagued by a technical problem, pole-sitter Dorison dropped several places in the following laps before retiring. On lap 3, the battle for the lead continued to evolve, with Bolliet also having to retire. Louis Iglesias took the lead ahead of Alex Munoz, but the duel was short-lived, as a mistake by Iglesias saw him drop back ten places. After a very strong start to the race, Japan’s Rintaro Sato seized his opportunities to complete the fourth lap in the lead, ahead of Munoz, Rayan Caretti, Jules Roussel and Guillaume Bouzar, the winner of Race 2.
At the front, Sato pulled away, while Munoz tried to stay in touch, without really being able to mount an attack. Bouzar overtook Roussel and took Roméo Leurs, who had also made a very good start, in his wake. Further back, Germany’s Montego Maassen worked hard to make up the places he had lost in the early laps, allowing him to regain his initial position of 7th.
The end of the race was marked by a reversal of positions between Bouzar and Caretti for the final step on the podium. The son of former F1 driver Takuma Sato, Rintato Sato celebrated his first victory ahead of Munoz, who set the fastest lap of the race. By gaining 10 points in the overall standings on his rival Roussel, who finished 6th in the race, Munoz now has a 27-point lead. With 70 points still up for grabs in the sixth and final round at Le Mans from 26 to 28 September, the final showdown promises to be an exciting one.
Roméo Leurs finished 5th, equalling his best performance of the season. Hugo Herrouin moved up from 12th to 8th place, finishing a few lengths ahead of Monaco’s Mattéo Giaccardi. The two best female drivers in Races 1 and 2 had to retire. Starting 25th on the grid, Jade Jacquet made a superb comeback to finish 14th overall, climbing to the top step of the podium ahead of Angelina Proenca and Sofia Zanfari in the women’s category.
> Race 3 classification
1 Rintaro Sato (Japan) with 21 laps
2 Alexandre Munoz (France) at 2.490
3 Guillaume Bouzar (France) at 10.140
4 Rayan Caretti (France) at 10.685
5 Roméo Leurs (France) at 10.812
6 Jules Roussel (France) at 11.839
7 Montego Maassen (Germany) at 12.267
8 Hugo Herrouin (France) at 13.692
9 Mattéo Giaccardi (Monaco) at 14.308
10 Louis Iglesias (France) at 15.442
11 Paul Roques (France) at 16.673
12 Hugo Martiniello (France) at 18.905
13 Nicolas Pasquier (France) at 20.755
14 (F-P1) Jade Jacquet (France) at 27.654
15 Zhelin Shen (China) at 28.748
16 (F-P2) Angelina Proenca (France) at 30.746
17 Jack Iliffe (United States) at 31.363
18 Niccolo Pirri (Italy) at 32.047
19 Sasha Milojkovic (Australia) at 32.925
20 Thomas Senecloze (France) at 39.674
21 (F-P3) Sofia Zanfari (Morocco) at 50.317
22 (F-P4) Héloïse Goldberg (France) at 50.558
23 Léandre Carvalho (Portugal) at 1:04.791
24 Rafaël Perard (France) with 20 laps
25 Pablo Riccobono Bello (France) with 15 laps
26 (F-P5) Annabelle Brian (Netherlands) with 11 laps
27 Pierre Devos (France) with 9 laps
28 Arthur Dorison (France) with 8 laps
29 (F-P6) Lisa Billard (France) with 5 laps
30 Malo Bolliet (France) with 2 laps
Fastest lap: Munoz in 1:21.638 (avg. 139.1 km/h)
(F): Female
> Championship standings after Lédenon
1 Munoz 207 points, 2 Roussel 180 points, 3 Dorison 145 points, 4 Caretti 137 points, 5 Bouzar 106 points, 6 Perard 80 points, 7 Maassen 78 points, 8 Iglesias 75 pts, 9 Bolliet 74 pts, 10 Sato 63 pts, 11 Giaccardi 47 pts, 12 Leurs 36 pts, 13 Consani 30 pts, 14 Herrouin 25 pts, 15 Senecloze 14 pts, 16 Riccobono Bello 13 pts, 17 Milojkovic 6 pts, 18 Martiniello 4 pts, 19 Billard 2 pts, 20 Pirri 2 pts, 21 Pasquier 1 pt.
> 6th and final round 2025: Le Mans (25-27 September)
