Home Formula 4French F4 Capietto wins French F4’s opening Paul Ricard race

Capietto wins French F4’s opening Paul Ricard race

by Ida Wood

Photo: Ida Wood

Maceo Capietto won a spicy French Formula 4 opener at Paul Ricard after battling with Esteban Masson and Daniel Ligier.

Capietto worked hard to get the lead in the opening laps, something he eventually took from title rival Masson who had started on pole.

Masson managed to get almost a second clear before being reeled back in, with Capietto ending lap five of 11 just 0.047 seconds behind and with a suprerior pace sooning passing him to reclaim first place.

Once he got back ahead he was able to pull away, while Masson fell into the clutches of Ligier who was part of the three-car lead battle after passing early chaser Alessandro Giusti.

Ligier got through into second place with three laps to go, and that then turned Masson’s attention to Hugh Barter just behind. He did have the pace to come back at him though, and on the penultimate lap Ligier dropped to fourth behind Masson and Barter.

Capietto ended up winning by 2.958s ahead of Masson, opening up his championship lead to 16 points, with Ligier just holding off Barter for third place a further second back.

Giusti finished fifth ahead of Gael Julien, while guest driver Elliott Vayron let go of seventh with a lap to go and fell behind Owen Tangavelou and Dario Cabanelas.

An incident involving Pierre-Alexandre Provost and Enzo Geraci early on put them out of points contention as they had to head to the pits, and Noah Andy followed them in a lap later. Louis Pelet was the top debutant in 13th place.

Race results (11 laps)
Pos Driver Time
1 Maceo Capietto 23m47.711s
2 Esteban Masson +2.958s
3 Daniel Ligier +3.892s
4 Hugh Barter +4.020s
5 Alessandro Giusti +4.791s
6 Gael Julien +6.610s
7 Owen Tangavelou +8.264s
8 Dario Cabanelas +8.731s
9 Elliott Vayron +10.659s
10 Thanapongpan Sutomno +22.650s
11 Romain Andriolo +24.914s
12 Enzo Richer +34.543s
13 Louis Pelet +35.059s
14 Luciano Morano +35.363s
15 Paul Jerome +45.899s
16 Angelina Favario +2 laps
Ret Noah Andy
Ret Pierre-Alexandre Provost
Ret Enzo Geraci
Fastest lap: Capietto, 2m08.751s

Championship standings
1
Capietto 225   2 Masson 209   3 Barter 158   4 Ligier 156   5 Julien 126   6 Tangavelou 123   7 Giusti 90   8 Cabanelas 71   9 Geraci 41   10 Andy 33