Home Formula 4French F4 Hirsiger fends off Sorensen to take maiden French F4 win

Hirsiger fends off Sorensen to take maiden French F4 win

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
Photo: Auto Sport Academy

Photo: Auto Sport Academy

Sophomore French F4 driver Felix Hirsiger celebrated his long-overdue maiden victory in race one of the fourth round of 2014 at Magny-Cours.

The Anglo-Swiss driver kept championship leader Lasse Sorensen at bay to convert his second pole into a career-first win.

Sorensen stayed within a second of Hirsiger at all times in the race, but could not find a way past him, despite slashing the gap to just 0.3s in the final minutes.

With the leading duo pulling away from the rest of the field relatively early on, it was Dorian Boccolacci who led the fight for best of the rest.

The Lotus junior held off Australian Joseph Mawson over the opening laps and was given some breathing room when Mawson himself came under pressure from Valentin Hasse-Clot.

The fight between the Frenchman and the Aussie eventually resulted in them going side-by-side into a chicane, with Mawson sticking to the inside line. The Australian then got slightly loose and Hasse-Clot inadvertently hit him in the back, damaging his own front wing.

From that point on, Hasse-Clot, who was chasing his best finish of the season, fell down the order, while Mawson was soon back on Boccolacci, eventually finishing just a few tenths off the podium.

Patricio O’Ward overtook David Droux early on in the race to eventually claim fifth, with the Swiss driver taking sixth place.

Hasse-Clot nursed his damaged car home in seventh, ahead of Russians Vladimir Atoev and Denis Bulatov, with Erwan Jule rounding out the top ten.

Race results
Pos. Name Time/Gap
1 Felix Hirsiger 14 laps in 24:44.623
2 Lasse Sorensen +0.527
3 Dorian Boccolacci +6.328
4 Joseph Mawson +6.684
5 Patricio O’Ward +8.123
6 David Droux +9.545
7 Valentin Hasse-Clot +10.800
8 Vladimir Atoev +11.144
9 Denis Bulatov +12.796
10 Erwan Jule +14.983
11 Paul Hokfelt +17.550
12 Max Defourny +18.168
13 Gjergj Haxhiu +22.209
14 Valentin Moineault +22.991
15 Tom Soubiron +28.442
16 Joao Carvalho +34.096
17 Amaury Richard +35.232
18 Axel Matus +41.562
19 Hugo Sugnot-Darniche +1:02.010
20 Simo Laaksonen +1:23.000
21 Anouck Abadie +1 lap
Not classified
Niclas Nylund +8 laps
Bryan Elpitiya +9 laps
Reuben Kressner +13 laps