Honda’s Nomura wins on debut F4 weekend in reversed grid Nogaro race

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Yuto Nomura took a commanding victory in the reversed grid race of the opening French Formula 4 round at Nogaro.

The Red Bull and Honda junior beat pole-sitter Enzo Peugeot off the line to take the lead into the first corner, and following a brief safety car period to recover the car of Leny Reveillere from the gravel trap, he timed his restart perfectly to pull away from Peugeot immediately. In the remaining laps he drove faultlessly, extending his advantage at the flag to 2.248 seconds.

The Japanese rookie never looked in any danger, posting fastest lap too en route to victory in just his second F4 race.

Peugeot meanwhile held off a late challenge from Lorens Lecertua and Dario Cabanelas to take second.

The grid was set by reversing the top 10 from Saturday’s qualifying. The four drivers at the front opted to take the two fresh tyres available for this race and thus were able to quickly extend a comfortable gap to the rest of the field.

Enzo Geraci and Alessandro Giusti maintained their starting positions to come home fifth and sixth, albeit over 2.5s adrift of fourth-placed Cabanelas.

Race one winner Hugh Barter started 10th by virtue of going fastest in qualifying. He disposed of Honda junior Souta Arao at the start, before passing Pierre-Alexandre Provost further round the opening lap.

A move on Elliott Vayron on lap four moved him up to seventh. Though he pushed Giusti hard for sixth in the closing laps he was unable to find a way through, but is still points leader after two races.

Vayron, Arao and Provost completed the remaining places in the top 10.

Race results (14 laps)