Photo: KSP
Esteban Masson will start the first and third races of this weekend’s French Formula 4 round at Many-Cours from pole after topping qualifying.
Daniel Ligier set the pace early on in the single qualifying session, before Australia’s Hugh Barter lopped five seconds off his benchmark. Ligier responded by going just a tenth slower than Barter, but then Masson broke into the 1m40s and from then on looked set for pole.
Again it was Ligier who responded to the lowering of the pace by getting close to it, and later on Noah Andy then snuck into second place.
Andy couldn’t improve from that point though, and was shuffled down to ninth. Masson went half a second faster before setting two near-identical laptimes in the 1m39s to earn himself pole for race one and three (set on second-best times), while Barter improved at the end to take up a front row position.
Maceo Capietto edged Alessandro Guisti to the third-fastest laptime, but Guisti did get Junior class pole ahead of Britain’s Aiden Neate in fifth.
Owen Tangavelou qualified 0.732s off pole in sixth, and on second-best laptimes he was 0.739s slower than Masson. That was enough to earn a front row spot for race three though, ahead of Giusti, Barter and the closely matched Ligier and Capietto.
There was a moment of drama for Enzo Geraci in the session as he spun but was able to rejoin, and the resultant yellow flags ruined some drivers’ laps. Track limits violations also led to several laptimes being deleted.
Free practice pacesetter Adam Szydlowski was over two seconds off pole in qualifying, and will start race one from 11th.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Esteban Masson 1m39.647s
2 Hugh Barter +0.450s
3 Maceo Capietto +0.607s
4 Alessandro Giusti +0.612s
5 Aiden Neate +0.721s
6 Owen Tangavelou +0.732s
7 Daniel Ligier +0.784s
8 Gael Julien +0.849s
9 Noah Andy +1.138s
10 Dario Cabanelas +1.307s
Race 3 grid
1 Masson 1m39.648s
2 Tangavelou +0.739s
3 Giusti +0.754s
4 Barter +0.799s
5 Ligier +0.820s
6 Capietto +0.828s
7 Neate +1.021s
8 Julien +1.192s
9 Cabanelas +1.339s
10 Andy +2.316s