Photo: KSP Reportages
Arthur Dorison and Rayan Caretti won French Formula 4’s second and third races at Magny-Cours last weekend.
It was not quite a lights-to-flag victory for Dorison in race two, as the reversed-grid poleman lost the lead to Guillaume Bouzar into the first hairpin. He got back ahead a few corners later, and lap one ended with Matteo Giaccardi and Malo Bolliet in third and fourth.
Caretti was eighth after a failed overtaking attempt at turn 14 led to him going off, but he got past Louis Iglesias early in lap two and then overtook Romeo Leurs as Rafael Perard fought Jules Roussel just behind.
Perard got ahead, and brought Andy Consani with him. Roussel fell behind Rintaro Sato on lap three, as Iglesias diced with Leurs for seventh. Roussel was contending with a mechanical issue, which led to him stopping on track and triggering a safety car period on lap four.
On the lap six restart, Perard passed Iglesias but it did not last and they were side-by-side until the final chicane which Iglesias skipped. Perard then locked up into turn five on lap seven and dropped behind Sato and Consani.
Caretti took two attempts to clear Munoz on lap eight, then the safety car appeared again on lap nine due to Sofia Zanfari and Pierre Devos crashing out. Iglesias and Leurs kept on battling, with the latter cutting the final chicane. He ran alongside Inglesias through lap 10, nosing ahead at one point before quickly colliding and breaking his own front-right wheel.
That meant the safety car period extended to the end of lap 12, after which Dorison held on to win while Sato made a late move on Munoz to finish sixth and Bolliet held off Caretti.
Roussel had race three pole, and Perard started with his car turned towards him on the inside of the front row. That worked, as he took the lead into turn one and stayed ahead despte almost going off at turn three.
Cutting the final chicane kept Roussel in second, but on lap two he locked up and went off at turn five which allowed Iglesias and Caretti through. Caretti took second place around turn nine, while Perard was already 3.3 seconds up the road.
The safety car appeared on three due to Pablo Riccobono Bello ploughing into Pierre Devos, but Perard quickly rebuilt his gap on the lap six restart. Bolliet spun Leurs out of sixth on lap seven, copping himself a drive-through penalty, as Roussel attacked Iglesias in multiple places and his rival cut the final chicane to stay ahead.
There was drama at the front on lap eight as Perard went off and Caretti then found himself with a 2.9s lead over Iglesias, who had just held off Roussel again. He finally got a move done by selling a dummy and diving down the inside at turn five on lap nine, with Munoz and Bouzar looking to capitalise. They instead spread out, with Dorison overtaking Bouzar on the penultimate lap for fifth.
Bolliet did not serve his penalty until lap 14 of 16, and his defending set up plenty of pack action until then. Consani was the only driver to successfully pass him, although he briefly lost out to Montego Maassen after making his overtake for seventh.
Results round-up
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Arthur Dorison
2 Guillaume Bouzar +1.059s
3 Matteo Giaccardi +1.900s
4 Malo Bolliet +3.760s
5 Rayan Caretti +4.125s
6 Rintaro Sato +5.228s
7 Alexandre Munoz +5.579s
8 Andy Consani +7.076s
9 Rafael Perard +7.866s
10 Montego Maassen +8.119s
Fastest lap: Bouzar, 1m40.391s
Race 3 (16 laps)
1 Caretti
2 Jules Roussel +1.729s
3 Louis Iglesias +3.271s
4 Munoz +4.848s
5 Dorison +7.933s
6 Bouzar +8.647s
7 Consani +13.472s
8 Maassen +16.255s
9 Giaccardi +16.884s
10 Sato +17.317s
Pole: Roussel, 1m40.161s
FL: Iglesias, 1m40.224s
Championship standings
1 Munoz 177 2 Roussel 154 3 Dorison 117 4 Caretti 106 5 Iglesias 67 6 Perard 66 7 Bolliet 65 8 Bouzar 63 9 Maassen 62 10 Giaccardi 41