Photo: Ida Wood
Evan Giltaire was fastest in French Formula 4’s pre-event test and practice session at Spa-Francorchamps.
Thursday was spent testing, and the 26-car field of racers was joined once more by Arthur Dorison. The 2022 FIA Karting Academy Trophy winner and French OK-Junior karting champion is gaining mileage despite not being old enough to race.
Points leader Enzo Peugeot was fastest in the first test session, setting a 2m24.717s to lead Roman Andriolo by 0.177 seconds. He was the only driver within a second of the pace, with Kevin Foster 1.131s back in third. Giltaire was absent from the session.
Peugeot was fastest once again in session two, setting a slower pace at 2m25.960s and leading Andriolo once more by 0.528s.
Giltaire topped session three with a 2m24.606s lap, with Peugeot 0.370s behind in second place and therefore sitting 0.111s behind Giltaire overall with his session one benchmark.
Hiyu Yamakoshi led the final two sessions, setting a 2m24.879s to lead Giltaire by 0.721s in session four and a 2m25.699s in session five with Giltaire 0.468s behind.
The sole practice session took place on Friday morning and Giltaire was fastest through the first 10 minutes while Gabriel Doyle-Parfait only completed two laps before hitting session-ending trouble.
Giltaire’s 0.738s advantage was reduced to 0.572s by Louis Schlesser before yellow flags waved at turn 14 and then practice was red flagged 13 minutes in due to Finn Wiebelhaus having a session-ending issue in the second sector.
Yani Stevenheydens also struck trouble, and the session was stopped for seven minutes. Giltaire did not improve his pace after the restart, while Yamakoshi and Andriolo moved up to second and fourth respectively with two minutes to go.
There was then more red flags, this time caused by Edouard Borgna, and the session did not restart. Giltaire ended up on top by just 0.050s over Yamakoshi, with Schlesser improving to sit 0.430s behind in third and with Andriolo 0.548s back in fourth. Only four other drivers got within a second of Giltaire’s pace around the long Spa lap.
Free practice results
| Pos | Driver | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evan Giltaire | 2m24.527s | 8 | |
| 2 | Hiyu Yamakoshi | 2m24.577s | +0.050s | 8 |
| 3 | Louis Schlesser | 2m24.957s | +0.430s | 9 |
| 4 | Romain Andriolo | 2m25.075s | +0.548s | 8 |
| 5 | Kevin Foster | 2m25.120s | +0.593s | 8 |
| 6 | Adrien Closmenil | 2m25.165s | +0.638s | 8 |
| 7 | Edgar Pierre | 2m25.254s | +0.727s | 8 |
| 8 | Enzo Peugeot | 2m25.265s | +0.738s | 8 |
| 9 | Garrett Berry | 2m25.584s | +1.057s | 8 |
| 10 | Tom Kalender | 2m25.978s | +1.451s | 8 |
| 11 | Enzo Richer | 2m25.984s | +1.457s | 9 |
| 12 | Karel Schulz | 2m26.124s | +1.597s | 8 |
| 13 | Paul Alberto | 2m26.125s | +1.598s | 8 |
| 14 | Max Reis | 2m26.234s | +1.707s | 8 |
| 15 | Andrei Duna | 2m26.251s | +1.724s | 8 |
| 16 | Jason Leung | 2m26.305s | +1.778s | 8 |
| 17 | Yaroslav Veselaho | 2m26.577s | +2.050s | 8 |
| 18 | Yani Stevenheydens | 2m26.623s | +2.096s | 8 |
| 19 | Frank Porte Ruiz | 2m26.664s | +2.137s | 8 |
| 20 | Edouard Borgna | 2m26.847s | +2.320s | 7 |
| 21 | Finn Wiebelhaus | 2m26.996s | +2.469s | 4 |
| 22 | Joao Paulo Diaz Balesteiro | 2m27.091s | +2.564s | 9 |
| 23 | Leonardo Megna | 2m27.433s | +2.906s | 8 |
| 24 | Pol Lopez | 2m27.829s | +3.302s | 8 |
| 25 | Luca Savu | 2m28.677s | +4.150s | 7 |
| 26 | Gabriel Doyle-Parfait | 2m38.324s | +13.797s | 2 |