Photo: Roger Gascoigne
Enzo Peugeot claimed victory ahead of Jeronimo Berrio and Elliott Vayron in French Formula 4’s reversed-grid race at Valencia as Alessandro Giusti inherited the points lead.
Peugeot started from pole and led from the off, while Enzo Richer – who started alongside Peugeot – dropped immediately behind Berrio due to a slow getaway, and would lose another one position in favour of Vayron.
The safety car came out at the end of lap three as Mateo Villagomez was off-track at turn two.
Green flag action resumed with 14 minutes remaining on the clock. A poor restart from Romain Andriolo resulted in him dropping back from fifth to eighth place as he was overtaken by Souta Arao, Hugh Barter and Giusti.
An incident at turn six involving multiple cars then brought the safety car out again. Pierre-Alexandre Provost made contact with Edgar Pierre, and Enzo Geraci, who had slowed down in an attempt to avoid them, had Leny Reveillere running into the back of his car and over his rear wing. Provost, Geraci and Reveillere headed into the pitlane and retired at the end of the lap.
The track went green again with 10 minutes to go, but it would go yellow one more time as Antoine Fernand lost the control of his car and ended up beached in the gravel trap of turn 12.
The marshals picked up the car, and there was time left for three more laps.
Barter, who had previously passed Arao, fought Vayron for third place. However, it was Vayron who eventually stepped onto the podium as he held Barter off and attacked Berrio for second position on the last lap of the race.
Giusti, who had overtaken Richer in the last restart for sixth place, concluded the race in fifth as he also passed Arao, who dropped from fifth to seventh in the last lap.
As Barter is ineligible for points for this weekend having already raced at Valencia this year, it means Giusti took the points for fourth place and therefore overtakes Barter at the top of the championship standings.
Race result (12 laps)
| Pos | Driver | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Enzo Peugeot | 22m30.062s |
| 2 | Jeronimo Berrio | +1.031s |
| 3 | Elliott Vayron | +1.458s |
| 4 | Hugh Barter | +1.704s |
| 5 | Alessandro Giusti | +3.545s |
| 6 | Yuto Nomura | +3.817s |
| 7 | Souta Arao | +4.802s |
| 8 | Romain Andriolo | +5.590s |
| 9 | Dario Cabanelas | +6.926s |
| 10 | Enzo Richer | +7.766s |
| 11 | Lorens Lecertua | +7.926s |
| 12 | Pablo Sarrazin | +8.943s |
| 13 | Valentino Mini | +9.749s |
| 14 | Max Reis | +10.129s |
| 15 | Pol Lopez | +11.406s |
| 16 | Edgar Pierre | +11.997s |
| Ret | Louis Pelet | |
| Ret | Antoine Fernande | |
| Ret | Enzo Geraci | |
| Ret | Pierre-Alexandre Provost | |
| Ret | Leny Reveillere | |
| Ret | Mateo Villagomez | |
| Fastest lap: Peugeot, 1m36.079s
Championship standings |
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