Enzo Peugeot fastest in red-flagged French F4 practice at Magny-Cours

Enzo Peugeot pipped Evan Giltaire to the top of the times in free practice for the second round of the French Formula 4 season at Magny-Cours.

Peugeot was fastest from the early stages of the half-hour session, being first to break into the 1m43s while Giltaire was still lapping in the 1m45s in second place.

After 10 minutes that was still the case, with Peugeot on top by 1.645 seconds and with Pierre Edgar 1.938s back in third. Kevin Foster then moved up to third place, but he was still 1.894s off the pace.

Both he and Peugeot improved on their next laps, with Pegueot setting a 1m43.330s and Foster a 1m43.806s. Yani Stevenheydens rose up to third, 0.996s slower than Peugeot’s new benchmark.

Foster had even more pace in his next lap, and he set a 1m42.616s to go fastest, with only Peugeot and Stevenheydens within two seconds of him at the session’s halfway point. Championship leader Giltaire meanwhile had dropped to 10th.

Peugeot responded to Foster by reclaiming first place, going faster than him by 0.116s, while Giltaire jumped back up to third – 0.404s off the pace – and Max Reis got within a second of Peugeot in fourth place.

There was then an off by Edgar at turn three, but he managed to return to track, while Hiyu Yamakoshi was not so lucky and stopped at turn 10, prompting the session to be red flagged.

Giltaire had set a new benchmark just before the flags came out, going 0.034s faster than Peugeot, and when practice restarted there was just over five minutes left on the clock.

Peugeot returned to the top in the final two minutes, setting a 1m42.110s, with with one minute to go Giltaire set a 1m41.519s and Foster posted a 1m42.005s to shuffle Peugeot down to third.

However Peugeot had timed his return to track best, as he set a 1m41.287s with 13 seconds to go before the chequered flag. That left him time to do one more lap than his rivals, who crossed the line moments after him.

Giltaire improved to 1m41.292s, putting him just 0.005s off the top, then that gap increased to 0.064s when Peugeot finished his final lap.

Foster did not improve on his last lap, and was 0.777s back in third, with Romain Andriolo and Garrett Berry the only other two drivers within a second of the pace. Berry was warned during the session for track limits abuse.

Free practice results