At Le Mans, Louis Iglesias and Matteo Giaccardi won Races 1 and 2, as well as securing their first ever victories in the French F4 Championship. As for Alex Munoz, his first title is within reach, as he can no longer be caught in the overall standings.
The final round of the French F4 Championship promised plenty of action, and that’s exactly what we got! The title battle between Alex Munoz and Jules Roussel lived up to expectations, but it was the drivers battling it out for the two podium places on Saturday who stole the show. It was an exciting day to watch at all levels of the field.
Race 1: Debut win for Louis Iglesias
At Magny-Cours in August, when Louis Iglesias achieved his first pole position, disappointment prevailed due to a quick retirement. This time, the Côte d’Azur driver converted his top qualifying time into a brilliant victory after leading from start to finish. However, it was not plain sailing, due to the pressure exerted by Japan’s Rintaro Sato once he had successfully overtaken Rafaël Perard at the start of the race. These three drivers had already made an excellent start, as had Guillaume Bouzar, who spent a long time trying to get onto the podium.
Behind them, a magnificent and intense battle took place between the top four in the championship. Arthur Dorison, who set the fastest lap of the race, eventually pulled away from Alex Munoz, Jules Roussel and Rayan Caretti. However, Arthur, Alex and Jules had the unpleasant surprise of losing valuable places on the first lap and were never in a position to challenge for the podium. In contrast, Rayan was only 14th on the starting grid, but was already 9th at the end of the first lap and finally finished 8th, despite a clutch problem.. Throughout the 19 laps of the race, Malo Bolliet and Monegasque driver Mattéo Giaccardi matched each other in 9th and 10th positions.
Jade Jacquet moved up from 17th to 15th place, but it wasn’t enough to close the gap on Lisa Billard. Lisa once again took the top step of the podium in the women’s race, with the top three being completed by Dutch driver Annabelle Brian, who moved up from 28th to 22nd place in the overall classification.
Race 2: Bolliet leads, Giaccardi wins*
Like Louis Iglesias in the morning, Matteo Giaccardi claimed his first victory in the FFSA Academy in the afternoon. Following in the footsteps of Malo Bolliet, the Monegasque driver had a flawless race after getting the better of Rafaël Perard at the start. But although Bolliet crossed the finish line first, a 5-second penalty imposed by the race stewards deprived the 2024 Feed Racing Volant winner of his first victory. He dropped to 4th place behind Guillaume Bouzar, who confirmed his rise to prominence at the end of the season, and Arthur Dorison. Starting 9th and finishing 4th, the latter had a superb attacking race.
Several incidents during the race claimed victims among the contenders for the top spots: Rintaro Sato and Montego Maassen at the start of the race, then Rafaël Perard, Hugo Herrouin and Rayan Caretti, three drivers who were fighting for a top-five finish.
Initially ahead of Alex Munoz, Jules Roussel hoped to keep the suspense alive for the title until Race 3 on Sunday morning. However, Munoz proved to be an excellent finisher, coming back to 5th place and setting the fastest lap of the race. Behind his rival at the chequered flag, Roussel was ultimately penalised and fell much further down the rankings. Jules will now have to secure his place as runner-up against Dorison in the final showdown on Sunday morning. Louis Iglesias and Roméo Leurs moved up a place each to 6th and 7th in this race, in which the positions were reversed for the top 10 in Qualifying.
9th behind Thomas Senecloze, who made a sensational 19-place gain, Lisa Billard secured another victory in the women’s category ahead of Jade Jacquet and Dutch driver Annabelle Brian. After American Jack Iliffe at Lédenon, it was Maverick McKenna’s turn to make his debut with the FFSA Academy, with an encouraging 12th place in Race 2.
> Qualifying session: 1 Iglesias 1:37.418, 2 Dorison 1:37.421, 3 Roussel 1:37.495, 4 Munoz 1:37.583, 5 Sato 1:37.632, 6 Perard 1:37.668, 7 Bouzar 1:37.715, 8 Herrouin 1:37.880, 9 Giaccardi 1:37.888, 10 Bolliet 1:37.959, etc.
> Race 1 classification
1 Louis Iglesias (France) with 19 laps
2 Rintaro Sato (Japan) at 1.284
3 Rafaël Perard (France) at 5.041
4 Guillaume Bouzar (France) at 7.659
5 Arthur Dorison (France) at 10.497
6 Alexandre Munoz (France) at 13.259
7 Jules Roussel (France) at 13.914
8 Rayan Caretti (France) at 14.740
9 Malo Bolliet (France) at 15.440
10 Mattéo Giaccardi (Monaco) at 16.356
11 Roméo Leurs (France) at 19.069
12 Montego Maassen (Germany) at 19.792
13 (F-P1) Lisa Billard (France) at 21.868
14 Hugo Herrouin (France) at 28.525
15 (F-P2) Jade Jacquet (France) at 31.386
16 Nicolas Pasquier (France) at 33.579
17 Niccolo Pirri (Italy) at 34.437
18 Pablo Riccobono Bello (France) at 34.764
19 Paul Roques (France) at 34.976
20 Thomas Senecloze (France) at 38.603
21 Pierre Devos (France) at 40.920
22 (F-P3) Annabelle Brian (Netherlands) at 53.036
23 Maverick McKenna (France) at 53.281
24 (F-P4) Angelina Proenca (France) at 53.765
25 Léandre Carvalho (Portugal) at 54.350
26 Sasha Milojkovic (Australia) at 54.751
27 (F-P5) Héloïse Goldberg (France) at 1:05.637
28 (F-P6) Sofia Zanfari (Morocco) at 1:15.174
29 Jack Iliffe (United States) with 4 laps
Fastest lap: Dorison in 1:37.681 (avg. 154.2 km/h)
> Race 2 classification*
1 Mattéo Giaccardi (Monaco) with 17 laps
2 Guillaume Bouzar (France) at 2.345
3 Arthur Dorison (France) at 4.008
4 Malo Bolliet (France) at 4.425
5 Alexandre Munoz (France) at 5.165
6 Louis Iglesias (France) at 5.949
7 Roméo Leurs (France) at 7.249
8 Thomas Senecloze (France) at 8.298
9 (F-P1) Lisa Billard (France) at 8.886
10 Niccolo Pirri (Italy) at 9.366
11 (F-P2) Jade Jacquet (France) at 10.927
12 Maverick McKenna (France) at 11.424
13 Pablo Riccobono Bello (France) at 12.210
14 Paul Roques (France) at 14.742
15 (F-P3) Annabelle Brian (Netherlands) at 16.481
16 Pierre Devos (France) at 16.824
17 (F-P4) Angelina Proenca (France) at 19.438
18 Léandre Carvalho (Portugal) at 20.049
19 Sasha Milojkovic (Australia) at 21.067
20 Jack Iliffe (United States) at 21.506
21 (F-P5) Sofia Zanfari (Morocco) at 26.448
22 Jules Roussel (France) at 36.545
23 Rayan Caretti (France) with 16 laps
24 Nicolas Pasquier (France) with 15 laps
25 Hugo Herrouin (France) with 14 laps
26 Rafaël Perard (France) with 9 laps
27 Montego Maassen (Germany) with 7 laps
28 Rintaro Sato (Japan) with 1 lap
29 (F-P6) Héloïse Goldberg (France), did not start
Fastest lap: Munoz in 1:38.054 (avg. 153.6 km/h)
* Ranking suspended due to an appeal lodged by a competitor
(F): Female
> Race 3: Sunday 28th September (09:05 – 09:40)
