Photo: KSP Reportages
Alexandre Munoz continued his strong start to the French Formula 4 season by topping qualifying for round two at Dijon.
An unusual free practice session preceded qualifying, as only nine of the 30 drivers set a flying lap and just 13 in total completed a timed lap of any description.
Arthur Dorison was fastest, a 1m17.612s set on the sixth of his nine tours of the track putting him 0.273 seconds ahead of Niccolo Pirri. Jason Shen was half a second further back in third, and Jade Jacquet was 1.033s off the place in fourth.
The nine who did lap at pace were covered by 4.166s, and points leader Munoz was among those who did not have a laptime to their name. Four drivers, including round one podium-finisher Rafael Perard did not leave the pits at all.
Drivers went on either two or three runs in qualifying, and Munoz had already set a lap good enough for pole on his second which meant he had an easy final five minutes to the half-hour session while many of his rivals headed back out on track for another go at taking first place.
Nobody in the top 13 was able to improve with their last-minute efforts, and Munoz ended qualifying fastest by 0.063s over Montego Maassen. The pair were matched on pace at the top of the times in pre-event testing.
Jules Roussel and Perard were 0.203s and 0.252s off Munoz’s paces, and just 0.086s split Louis Iglesias in fifth and Hugo Herrouin in ninth.
Drivers’ second-best laptimes set race three’s grid, and a 1m16.667s earned Munoz his third pole from four in 2025. He was 0.12s ahead of Maassen, with Roussel and Perard also breaking the 1m17s barrier twice. Guillaume Bouzar, Herrouin and Dorison were the only other drivers within half a second of Munoz’s pole-setting time.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Alexandre Munoz 1m16.560s
2 Montego Maassen +0.063s
3 Jules Roussel +0.203s
4 Rafael Perard +0.252s
5 Louis Iglesias +0.415s
6 Guillaume Bouzar +0.426s
7 Malo Bolliet +0.461s
8 Hugo Herrouin +0.501s
9 Arthur Dorison +0.508s
10 Rintaro Sato +0.621s
Race 3 grid
1 Munoz 1m16.667s
2 Maassen +0.120s
3 Roussel +0.127s
4 Perard +0.213s
5 Bouzar +0.340s
6 Herrouin +0.479s
7 Dorison +0.483s
8 Andy Consani +0.566s
9 Bolliet +0.568s
10 Iglesias +0.571s