Rayan Caretti leaps up French F4 standings with victory at Magny-Cours

Photo: KSP Reportages

Rayan Caretti won French Formula 4’s first race of the weekend at Magny-Cours.

Testing kicked off the track action on Thursday. In session one, Arthur Dorison set a 1m42.091s to lead Jules Roussel by 0.063 seconds and Matteo Giaccardi by 0.379s.

Alexandre Munoz lowered the pace to 1m41.979s in session two, leading Guillaume Bouzar by 0.228s and Roussel by 0.288s.

Red flags ended session three early but laptimes still improved, with Romeo Leurs posting a new 1m41.903s benchmark. Rafael Perard trailed by 0.251s in that session, with Caretti 0.744s back and the only other driver within a second of the pace. A second had covered the top 13 in session two.

Malo Bolliet moved to the top in session four, just 0.057s up on Dorison and 0.091s clear of Roussel. Montego Maassen and Leurs completed the top five and a second now split the top 16.

Hugo Herrouin rose to sixth overall by setting a 1m41.211s to top session five, 0.043s ahead of Bouzar who moved up to ninth behind Caretti and Munoz.

Free practice followed on Friday and Leurs set a 1m40.969s to sit half a second clear of the rest of the field. Consani was second, 0.031s ahead of Munoz, and Rintaro Sato was 0.724s behind in fourth. Maassen, Herrouin, Perard and Louis Iglesias were all within a second of Leurs.

Qualifying was in the afternoon, and red flags ended it two minutes early. Iglesias did not need the full session to take race one pole, as he set a 1m39.892s early on that would not be beaten. Caretti and Perard got within 0.176s and 0.195s of him with their next laps, and the top three was set.

Roussel set a 1m40.151s a few minutes later to qualify fourth, and Munoz was the last driver within half a second of Iglesias in fifth, 0.112s behind Leurs.

Drivers’ second-best laptimes set race three’s grid, and Roussel earned pole with a 1m40.161s. Perard, Caretti and Iglesias provisionally fill the next three places.

There was drama on the formation lap for race one as Bolliet warmed up his brakes by stopping entirely and many drivers did the same behind. The opening lap was also action-packed, with Caretti diving past Inglesias at the turn five hairpin.

He did not turn in enough, so when Iglesias steered into the corner he broke off his front wing on Caretti’s car.

Caretti led Perard into lap two, with Munoz third and Leurs taking fourth from Roussel.

Thomas Senecloze crashed out in sector three on lap three, but the safety car did not appear until Lisa Billard stopped. Bolliet had overtaken Roussel in the queue behind Leurs before that, but they swapped places again on the lap eight restart as Angelina Procena crashed out and triggered another safety car period.

On the lap 11 restart, Perard got alongside Caretti at turn four on the outside then switched to the inside to grab the lead into turn five. However he looked nervous once ahead, and bunched everybody up. Roussel got caught out in it and had to pit, as Caretti attempted overtaking at turn 15 two laps in a row. His second go worked, then Munoz hassled Perard to the end while extending his points lead. Bolliet had already re-passed Roussel, and later he got by Leurs for fourth.

Race result (16 laps)