Photo: FFSA Academy
Honda junior Taito Kato claimed a double win ahead of the French Formula 4 championship leader Yani Stevenheydens at Dijon.
With Stevenheydens crashing out of race two, Kato has closed to just six points behind ahead of the final round at Paul Ricard, with Jules Caranta now a further 11 points back after missing a chance to win the reversed-grid encounter.
After taking a double pole in qualifying on Friday, Kato comfortably won Saturday’s opening race, creating a gap of 3.5 seconds to Stevenheydens following an early safety car.
Jules Caranta, who came into the weekend just nine points behind Stevenheydens, slipped behind Dylan Estre to seventh at the start. He reclaimed the place after the restart and went on to take fifth from Augustin Bernier on the next lap, finishing in that position behind Frank Porte Ruiz and Jules Roussel.
Stevenheydens tangled with Augustin Bernier on the first lap of race two, with both cars sent crashing hard into the barriers.
Estre had started from pole but lost out to Chester Kieffer at the start, but at the restart dived to Kieffer’s inside at the first corner, forcing his rival wide into the gravel.
While Caranta swept from fifth to take the lead, Estre rejoined down in fifth, but within a lap he was side-by-side again into Turn 1 with Caranta and Jason Leung for the lead. A few corners later he could retake the led away from Caranta.
The younger brother of Porsche factory sportscar racer Kevin Estre went on to take his first single-seater win, while Montego Maassen, son of former Porsche stalwart Sascha, came through to beat Caranta to second for his first podium finish.
Kato, saving tyres for the final race, finished outside the points in 11th.
He would lead from to start to finish again in race three though, this time by a larger margin of 4.4s over Stevenheydens. That was despite a mid-race safety car after Gabriel Doyle-Parfait ran wide and into the barriers while racing Alex O’Grady.
Maassen completed his best weekend of the season so far after taking third place away from Porte Ruiz at the restart. Caranta finished sixth behind Bernier.
Results round-up
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Taito Kato 22m26.915s
2 Yani Stevenheydens +3.523s
3 Frank Porte Ruiz +6.760s
4 Jules Roussel +7.277s
5 Jules Caranta +8.315s
6 Augustin Bernier +12.993s
7 Montego Maassen +13.130s
8 Dylan Estre +15.693s
9 Rayan Caretti +16.285s
10 Chester Kieffer +17.198s
FL: Kato, 1m17.285s
Race 2 (14 laps)
1 Estre 21m29.027s
2 Maassen +0.791s
3 Caranta +2.194s
4 Jason Leung +2.648s
5 Caretti +7.834s
6 Porte Ruiz +10.585s
7 Gabriel Doyle-Parfait +11.339s
8 Roussel +11.826s
9 Leonardo Megna +12.618s
10 Mathilda Paatz +13.307s
FL: Maassen, 1m17.832s
Race 3 (15 laps)
1 Kato 22m22.870s
2 Stevenheydens +4.401s
3 Maassen +5.262s
4 Porte Ruiz +7.461s
5 Bernier +8.964s
6 Caranta +10.065s
7 Kieffer +10.266s
8 Caretti +10.638s
9 Enzo Caldaras +12.903s
10 Estre +15.770s
FL: Kato, 1m17.453s
Championship standings
1 Stevenheydens 252 2 Kato 246 3 Caranta 235 4 Kieffer 116 5 Caretti 109 6 Porte Ruiz 99 7 Bernier 92 8 Maassen 60 9 Roussel 58 10 Megna 48