Photo: KSP Reportages
Evan Giltaire was fastest in French Formula 4’s qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps, putting him on pole for races one and three of the weekend.
The delayed afternoon session began with almost all of the cars heading out at the same time to try to get a feel for the track conditions but also see if they could get any space for when they started a flying lap.
Before anyone managed to complete that there was yellow flags out due to someone going off at turn 16, and when the first laps did come in there were a few drivers who then lost their laptime due to track limits violations.
Adrien Closmenil was fastest at first, setting a 2m25.267s to lead Kevin Foster by 0.014 seconds and Tom Kalender by 0.536s.
Closmenil improved to 2m25.052s, and Louis Schlesser became his closest rival, 0.149s behind. Neither Foster or Kalender improved, but after finding some clean air were able to improve their pace a few minutes later.
Giltaire moved to the top in the final 10 minutes, setting a 2m24.666s, while Foster returned to second place with a 2m24.716s. Andriolo also broke into the 2m24s in third place, and Kalender was 0.371s behind in fourth.
The top two both improved on their next laps, with Giltaire extending his advantage to 0.379s over Foster, while Kalender returned to third and Edgar Pierre jumped up to fifth.
A new name appeared in the top three with just over four minutes to go as Hiyu Yamakoshi lapped within 0.476s of Giltaire’s pace, which shuffled championship leader Enzo Peugeot down to eighth.
There was no further change in the top 10 before red flags were brought out with 130 seconds left on the clock, which meant the session was ended early and Giltaire secured pole.
On second-fastest laps he was also the top driver, but only by 0.050s over Foster. Yamakoshi and Kalender will share row two of the grid for another race, while Closmenil will line up fifth behind them.
Qualifying round-up
Fastest laps
1 Evan Giltaire 2m24.303s
2 Kevin Foster +0.379s
3 Hiyu Yamakoshi +0.476s
4 Tom Kalender +0.532s
5 Romain Andriolo +0.638s
6 Edgar Pierre +0.638s
7 Adrien Closmenil +0.749s
8 Enzo Peugeot +0.881s
9 Louis Schlesser +0.898s
10 Garrett Berry +1.029s
Second-fastest laps
1 Giltaire 2m24.666s
2 Foster +0.050s
3 Yamakoshi +0.320s
4 Kalender +0.371s
5 Closmenil +0.543s
6 Schlesser +0.546s
7 Berry +0.722s
8 Andriolo +0.774s
9 Peugeot +0.953s
10 Yani Stevenheydens +1.040s