Photo: KSP Reportages
Evan Giltaire claimed both pole positions up for grabs in French Formula 4 qualifying at Magny-Cours, making it four out of four in 2023.
The car racing rookie started the season at Nogaro with two poles, a win and an early championship lead, and in Magny-Cours qualifying he was fastest by 0.389 seconds.
Giltaire set the pace in the first five minutes of the 25-minute session before Luca Savu got stuck in the gravel trap at turn 15 and forced qualifying to be stopped while his car was recovered. He did not rejoin the session after, and did not set a laptime.
At that point Giltaire had an advantage of 1.194s over FEED Racing France shootout winner Kevin Foster, with practice pacesetter Enzo Peugeot a further half-second back in third.
Only a third of the field had recorded laptimes at that point, and when the session restarted Gabiel Doyle-Parfait had an off at turn seven but managed to return to track unaided.
There was also a surprise new name on top a third of the way into qualifying as Adrien Closmenil set a 1m42.318s to lead Joao Paulo Diaz Balesteiro by 0.520s.
Giltaire was back ahead as the session headed into its second half, with a 1m40.519s lap putting him 0.334s ahead of Peugeot and 0.376s head of Romain Andriolo.
Another red flag stoppage followed, with a lengthy break before qualifying restarted again for the final eight minutes.
Hiyu Yamakoshi jumped up to fourth with four minutes to go, and Giltaire improved top 1m40.459s at the top with just over two minutes left on the clock.
Peugeot was following him and also improved, but his gain of 0.065s left him 0.389s short of race one pole.
There was time for one more lap after that, but the frontrunners opted to pit. The only change in the order after that came courtesy of Pol Lopez, who jumped from 10th to fourth while Yamakoshi improved at the same time as being demoted to fifth.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Evan Giltaire 1m40.459s
2 Enzo Peugeot +0.389s
3 Romain Andriolo +0.496s
4 Pol Lopez +0.681s
5 Hiyu Yamakoshi +0.704s
6 Kevin Foster +0.854s
7 Yani Stevenheydens +0.951s
8 Enzo Richer +1.161s
9 Leonardo Megna +1.164s
10 Adrien Closmenil +1.166s
Race 3 grid
1 Giltaire 1m40.579s
2 Peugeot +0.334s
3 Andriolo +0.531s
4 Yamakoshi +0.724s
5 Foster +0.754s
6 Richer +1.066s
7 Lopez +1.115s
8 Closmenil +1.134s
9 Stevenheydens +1.198s
10 Max Reis +1.385s