Photo: KSP
Guillaume Bouzar was victorious in two of French F4’s races at the Dijon-Prenois circuit with Thibaut Ramaekers also scoring his maiden win.
Already leading the standings after last month’s opening round at Nogaro, Bouzar claimed a second double pole position in a wet qualifying and converted it to the lead at the start of race one. Behind, Arthur Eschalier dropped down the order from third to fifth after a heavy lockup at turn 5.
The safety car was required twice in quick succession, first to recover both Kota Tsuchihashi and Mattheo Dauvergne after the pair collided at turn 1 just five minutes in, then for Oscar Goudchaux, who had been battling with Maverick McKenna over sixth prior to his incident.
Bouzar comfortably controlled the field at both restarts as Jack Iliffe, Hugo Herrouin, Lilian Soares and Ramaekers all squabbled over second. Herrouin snatched second at the second restart from Soares as the top five quickly pulled away.
With just two minutes remaining, Ramaekers made up for his poor start as he relegated Soares out of the podium positions and down to fourth.
Bouzar comfortably crossed the line one second clear of Herrouin with Ramaekers completing the podium positions while Soares and Iliffe rounded out the top five.
For race two the top 10 from qualifying was reversed putting Goudchaux on pole with Ginevra Panzeri alongside him and Jules Avril completing the top three.
Goudchaux got a stellar start, leading into turn 1 while Panzeri came under pressure from a fast-starting Iliffe from fourth on the grid. Behind, Tom Dussol and Avril battled for fourth with the latter coming out on top.
With 10 minutes gone, Iliffe made his move into turn 1, passing Goudchaux around the outside to take the lead. On the following lap Ramaekers – who started seventh – moved himself into third, passing Panzeri on the inside of turn 1.
Having lost the lead, Goudchaux began to tumble down the order, first being passed by Ramaekers and then, in the dying stages of the race, falling out of the podium positions as Avril snatched third.
Ramaekers was on a charge and he quickly established himself in the lead with 18 minutes remaining after a dive up the inside of Iliffe in turn 5.
From there Ramaekers looked unbeatable, securing victory from Iliffe and Avril in third. Behind them came Goudchaux and Herrouin, who was just ahead of early championship rival Bouzar in sixth.
Come the final race of the weekend it was Bouzar who dominated again in a carbon copy of his race one run, converting pole into the lead at the start.
Further back, contact for Thomas Senecloze sent him spearing off into the barriers at turn 4 bringing out the safety car. Just one more lap of racing had been complete before the field was neutralised again as Dauvergne pulled off after contact at turn 1.
With 10 minutes to go racing resumed and Bouzar streaked clear. Having been battling with Lewis Francis over fifth, Herrouin found himself tumbling down the order and out of the top five with an issue.
From there, despite being under pressure from Soares all the way, Bouzar came home to take his second win of the weekend and extend his lead in the championship to 47 points, with Ramaekers in second.
Iliffe came home to complete the top three while Dussol and Avril rounded out the top five.
Results round-up
Race 1 (17 laps)
1 Guillaume Bouzar 30m03.903s
2 Hugo Herrouin +1.028s
3 Thibaut Ramaekers +2.795s
4 Lilian Soares +3.816s
5 Jack Iliffe +4.0414s
6 Ginvera Panzeri +7.724s
7 Arthur Eschalier +8.411s
8 Jules Avril +9.581s
9 Maverick McKenna +10.090s
10 Jimmy Helias +11.240s
Pole: Bouzar, 1m27.041s
Fastest lap: 1m16.981s
Race 2 (23 laps)
1 Ramaekers 30m08.883s
2 Iliffe +4.185s
3 Avril +6.428s
4 Oscar Goudchaux +7.243s
5 Herrouin +7.840s
6 Bouzar +8.913s
7 Panzeri +13.373s
8 Nicolas Pasquier +14.056s
9 Soares +14.891s
10 Lewis Francis +15.119s
FL: Raemaekers, 1m17.488s
Race 3 (18 laps)
1 Bouzar 30m53.664s
2 Soares +1.946s
3 Iliffe +2.753s
4 Tom Dussol +3.084s
5 Shane Chandaria +9.692s
6 Avril +10.493s
7 Ramaekers +10.619s
8 Pasquier +11.042s
9 McKenna +11.925s
10 Helias +12.906s
P: Bouzar, 1m27.667s
FL: Bouzar, 1m17.219s
Championship standings
1 Bouzar 100 2 Ramaekers 53 3 Soares 53 4 Herrouin 52 5 Iliffe 33 6 Goudchaux 32 7 Mattheo Dauvergne 28 8 Kota Tsuchihashi 27 9 Francis 24 10 Avril 22