The clouds played cat and mouse across the skies above the Nièvre region, but the Magny-Cours circuit was ultimately completely dry when the 32 cars of the French F4 Championship took to the track for the crucial official Qualifying session, the fourth of the season.
The first twist came after around ten minutes with a red flag, as the young drivers from the FFSA Academy were already battling it out. Guillaume Bouzar was then leading with a time of 1:41.360, just ahead of Japan’s Kota Tsuchihashi on 1:41.393 and Belgium’s Thibaut Ramaekers on 1:41.411. Several drivers had their best times disallowed for going off the track, including Lilian Soares, Yuval Rosen and Matthieu Dauvergne, who were also contenders for the top five.
When proceedings resumed, many had learnt their lesson, starting with Matthieu Dauvergne, who quickly stepped up the pace to break the 1:41 barrier and set the fastest time overall of 1:40.975. The French hopeful will start from pole position for Race 1 on Saturday 1 August, as well as for Race 3 on Sunday, thanks to setting the fastest second-lap time of 1:41.177.
Guillaume Bouzar, the Championship leader, was unable to improve his time and dropped to 5th place. Ramaekers eventually secured 2nd place in this closely contested Qualifying session with a time of 1:41.178, ahead of Tsuchihashi on 1:41.276 and Rosen on 1:41.320. Accustomed to starting from favourable positions on the grid, Tom Dussol put in a creditable performance with a time of 1:41.446, as did Lilian Soares with 1:41.543.
For Race 2, which will start in reverse order for the top 10 from Qualifying, two Americans will be among the frontrunners, with Maverick McKenna taking 8th place and Jack Iliffe 10th. Paul Gleizes secured his best result of the season by slotting into 9th position. Championship podium contender Hugo Herrouin had to settle for 12th place behind Australia’s Lewis Francis.
In the women’s category, Jade Jacquet proved the fastest, ahead of Lisa Billard and Autumn Fisher.
The starting grid for Race 3 will be slightly different from that of Race 1, with Rosen in 8th position. Bouzar, Dussol, Soares and McKenna have therefore moved up a place behind Dauvergne, Ramaekers and Tsuchihashi.
