Photo: Mercedes-AMG F1
Newly signed Mercedes Formula 1 junior driver Andy Consani claimed pole position on his car racing debut in a French Formula 4 qualifying session at Nogaro interrupted by five red flags.
In wet conditions, the half-hour free practice session on Saturday morning was stopped twice, with nine drivers setting flying laps before the first red flag period 11 minutes in. Alexandre Munoz was quickest at that point, a 1m48.389s putting him 1.522 seconds ahead of Montego Maassen. Louis Iglesias and Consani lapped in the 1m50s.
Green flags waved three minutes later, and the rest of the field managed to record laptimes before red flags appeared again. Malo Bolliet set a 1m48.461s to move into second, ahead of Rintaro Sato, Rafael Perard and non-improver Iglesias.
There were yellow flags shown at turn 11 and then the reds came out in the next two minutes, and Jules Roussel set a 1m48.496s to claim third before Perard lowered the pace to 1m47.896s. Seven minutes remained when practice restarted, but nobody had time for a flying lap.
Conditions remains wet for qualifying and the first red flag came after just five minutes before any representative times could be set. With 10 minutes gone, Rafael Perard managed to set a 1m50.209s just before the second stoppage for an incident involving Iglesias.
Munoz, Perard and then Dorison set times in the 1m49s around the mid-point of the half-hour session, with Dorison then getting down to a 1m49.305s just before the third red flag was triggered by Rayan Caretti with 12 minutes left on the clock.
There was just time for Guillaume Bouzar and Romeo Leurs to beat Dorison’s benchmark before another interruption, this time involving Jade Jacquet.
Entering the final four minutes, Iglesias, Perard and Jules Roussel took turns on top spot before one last red flag.
With the frequent interruptions creating large gaps on the leaderboard, the clean last few minutes to the chequered flag proved crucial, with Consani able to clock a 1m47.082s just before the clock ran out.
Munoz then claimed second, 0.16s back and with Roussel’s last attempt over a second down on his previous best, Rintaro Sato was able to beat him for third.
On second fastest times that set the grid for race three, Munoz was a second clear of the field, with Roussel narrowly claiming a place alongside him on the front row by just 0.007s over Thomas Senecloze, who had been only 13th quickest overall.
Lisa Billard will start from pole for race two when the top 10 drivers from qualifying will be reversed.
Additional reporting by Ida Wood
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Andy Consani 1m47.082s
2 Alex Munoz +0.160s
3 Rintaro Sato +0.177s
4 Jules Roussel +0.301s
5 Matteo Giaccardi +0.459s
6 Rafael Perard +0.530s
7 Niccolo Pirri +0.557s
8 Romeo Leurs +0.731s
9 Arthur Dorison +0.767s
10 Lisa Billard +0.965s
Race 3 grid
1 Munoz 1m48.685s
2 Roussel +1.050s
3 Senecloze +1.057s
4 Guillaume Bouzar +1.400s
5 Leurs +1.516s
6 Dorison +1.620s
7 Consani +1.849s
8 Sato +1.956s
9 Pirri +2.042s
10 Giaccardi +2.065s