Photo: KSP Reportages
Enzo Peugeot moved ahead in the French Formula 4 championship on Saturday with two poles and a win at Misano in Italy.
Evan Giltaire joined Peugeot on the race one front row, but was passed by Romain Andriolo on lap one. On lap two there was a sign of the chaos to come as Adrien Closmenil was hit off but rejoined in the first sector, then it all erupted at turn 10.
Hiyu Yamakoshi spun due to contact with another driver, and Tom Kalender spun trying to avoid him. Luca Savu went to the inside of Kalender but run over his front wing, while Yaroslav Veselaho went around the outside of the incident and at the exit of the corner converged with Savu who squeezed him onto the gravel as he went past. Veselaho’s rear-right wheel tagged Savu’s front-left and it sent him rolling down the straight.
The safety car was called out, and the incident was cleared in time for racing to resume on lap five. More drama occurred at turn 10 as Leonardo Megna and Louis Schlesser spun and then came to a stop, the latter with a broken front-right wheel.
Edouard Borgna broke his front-left wheel in an unrelated incident and he hobbled around before stopping on track, requiring the safety car to come out again on lap six.
But racing was back underway the lap after, and Giltaire took second from Andriolo into turn one. He then ran too deep and they went side-by-side though the next corners. Giltaire stayed ahead after Andriolo locked up, and stayed in second to the chequered flag as he could not challenge winner Peugeot.
Andriolo came under intense pressure from Edgar Pierre on the final lap but held on to third, and Kevin Foster pipped Garrett Berry to fifth. Yani Stevenheydens came from 23rd on the grid to finish ninth, and Max Reis was put out of the race with a few laps to after being spun by Gabriel Doyle-Parfait.
Karel Schulz started on reversed-grid pole for race two, and held the lead while Megna and Berry fought over second. After Berry made a forceful but successful move, Megna clashed with Andrei Duna and it sent the latter spinning into the gravel while he dropped to 24th.
The safety car appeared, and racing resumed on lap three. Barry made a great move on Schulz to take the lead, and the action was clean until two laps later when Veselaho spun around Megna at turn eight and broke his own front-right wheel.
The next safety car period ran until lap eight, and Berry was under no threat up front. He managed his pace to the finish, with Foster finishing second and Andriolo third.
Schulz lost several spots before plummeting to 11th, and Peugeot moved into fifth after overtaking Pierre. He then pursued Schlesser and overtake him, and Schlesser went off when trying to regain the place.
Giltaire and Enzo Richer benefited, and Richer passed Giltaire to finish sixth. The move cost Giltaire the points lead.
Results round-up
Race 1 (12 laps)
1 Enzo Peugeot 22m16.668s
2 Evan Giltaire +1.226s
3 Romain Andriolo +2.580s
4 Edgar Pierre +2.910s
5 Kevin Foster +5.186s
6 Garrett Berry +5.412s
7 Andrei Duna +6.567s
8 Karel Schulz +8.435s
9 Yani Stevenheydens +9.142s
10 Frank Porte Ruiz +11.777s
Pole: Peugeot, 1m37.310s
Fastest lap: Giltaire, 1m37.591s
Race 2 (12 laps)
1 Berry
2 Foster +0.564s
3 Andriolo +2.168s
4 Peugeot +3.291s
5 Pierre +6.224s
6 Enzo Richer +6.459s
7 Giltaire +6.613s
8 Louis Schlesser +7.045s
9 Adrien Closmenil +7.846s
10 Schulz +11.104s
FL: Peugeot, 1m37.831s
Championship standings
1 Peugeot 204 2 Giltaire 203 3 Foster 136 4 Andriolo 134 5 Hiyu Yamakoshi 107 6 Berry 86 7 Stevenheydens 68 8 Pol Lopez 52 9 Pierre 43 10 Richer 42