Hugh Barter fastest in French F4 free practice at Nogaro

Photo: Roger Gascoigne

Hugh Barter continued to lead the way in free practice ahead for the opening round of the French Formula 4 championship at Nogaro.

The Australian-Japanese driver, runner-up in 2021 and a winner at the Nogaro circuit, leapt to the front after 12 mins of the half-hour session, before immediately improving to record a best time of 1m28.707s.

As in Friday’s ‘private practice’ test sessions, the fastest times were all recorded in the first 15 minutes of running. Temperatures are expected to be significantly higher for Saturday afternoon’s qualifying.

Elliott Vayron, a multiple race winner last year, was second fastest, 0.193 seconds behind Barter.

The Japanese Red Bull/Honda juniors, Souta Arao and Yuto Nomura, continued their rapid learning process on their first visit to Nogaro to go third and fourth quickest. The less experienced Nomura, in particular, impressed, having been only 14th fastest on Friday.

Friday pacesetter, Alessandro Giusti, could only manage the fifth-fastest time, ahead of Lorens Lecertua, the Belgian karting graduate again impressing on his car racing debut.

India’s Amir Sayed was a surprising seventh-quickest, after having been only 15th on Friday.

One of Friday’s leading runners, Romain Andriolo, made four pitstops and could only manage the 10th-fastest time, one place ahead of Edgar Pierre whose Mygale had been repaired overnight following a heavy accident on Friday afternoon.

The sessions’s early front-runners Dario Cabanelas, Pierre-Alexandre Provost and Pablo Sarrazin filled positions 12 to 14.

Free practice result