Photo: FFSA / KSP
Evan Giltaire was fastest in French Formula 4 practice at Ledenon, in a session stopped twice by red flags.
The points leader had a clear advantage after the first few laps, with a 1m22.596s effort putting him 0.409 seconds ahead of Enzo Peugeot in second place and 2.754s clear of Enzo Richer in third.
Richer closed his gap to 0.96s, then he and Peugeot both improved on their fifth laps. Peugeot got within 0.253s of Giltaire, and Richer was 0.422s off the pace.
Next time by the pair improved once again, with Peugeot setting a new 1m22.558s benchmark and Richer now within 0.105s of the front.
It took until almost 11 minutes into the half-hour session for Giltaire to respond, and he did so by setting a 1m22.233s that put him 0.074s ahead of Peugeot who had also got faster. Richer improved by 0.001s an dropped to fifth behind Tom Kalender and Max Reis.
Kevin Foster got himself into third as Giltaire lowered the pace further to 1m22.126s, then the top two snuck in improvements before red flags waved. A 1m22.021s from Giltaire was the time to beat when practice resumed, and drivers were setting their first timed laps since the restart when red flags were brought out again after Karel Schulz struck trouble.
The next restart took place with five minutes to go, and with two successive improvements Richer got himself into fourth and then third place.
Giltaire lowered the pace to 1m21.911s on his penultimate lap to put himself 0.308s clear of Peugeot.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evan Giltaire | 1m21.911s | 16 | |
| 2 | Enzo Peugeot | 1m22.219s | +0.308s | 16 |
| 3 | Enzo Richer | 1m22.255s | +0.344s | 16 |
| 4 | Hiyu Yamakoshi | 1m22.362s | +0.451s | 16 |
| 5 | Max Reis | 1m22.362s | +0.451s | 15 |
| 6 | Kevin Foster | 1m22.396s | +0.485s | 15 |
| 7 | Paul Alberto | 1m22.442s | +0.531s | 16 |
| 8 | Andrei Duna | 1m22.462s | +0.551s | 15 |
| 9 | Tom Kalender | 1m22.562s | +0.651s | 15 |
| 10 | Edgar Pierre | 1m22.687s | +0.776s | 16 |
| 11 | Yani Stevenheydens | 1m22.735s | +0.824s | 16 |
| 12 | Romain Andriolo | 1m22.755s | +0.844s | 15 |
| 13 | Louis Schlesser | 1m22.769s | +0.858s | 15 |
| 14 | Pol Lopez | 1m22.838s | +0.927s | 16 |
| 15 | Garrett Berry | 1m22.871s | +0.960s | 15 |
| 16 | Jason Leung | 1m22.940s | +1.029s | 15 |
| 17 | Adrien Closmenil | 1m23.096s | +1.185s | 15 |
| 18 | Karel Schulz | 1m23.110s | +1.199s | 14 |
| 19 | Gabriel Doyle-Parfait | 1m23.232s | +1.321s | 15 |
| 20 | Edouard Borgna | 1m23.250s | +1.339s | 15 |
| 21 | Joao Paulo Diaz Balesteiro | 1m23.297s | +1.386s | 13 |
| 22 | Frank Porte Ruiz | 1m23.516s | +1.605s | 15 |
| 23 | Yaroslav Veselaho | 1m23.726s | +1.815s | 15 |
| 24 | Leonardo Megna | 1m23.843s | +1.932s | 15 |
| 25 | Finn Wiebelhaus | 1m24.106s | +2.195s | 14 |
| 26 | Luca Savu | 1m25.008s | +3.097s | 15 |