Munoz resists Roussel to round out Nogaro French F4 double

Photo: FFSA

Alexandre Munoz kept Jules Roussel at bay to complete a double victory in the opening round of the French Formula 4 season at Nogaro.

Munoz held the lead from pole position at the start in front of Roussel and Thomas Senecloze, with the safety car soon deployed after Zhelin Shen and Montego Maasen tangled. Their cars were quickly separated and hitched up ready to be towed away, but the race was then red-flagged while the clean-up was completed.

There was immediate action when the race restarted, with Romeo Leurs crashing into the barriers in Turn 2 after Rafael Perard attacked him for fourth. Perard also had to retire with damage, and his car was retrieved under yellow flags without the safety car being deployed.

Aided only partly by that incident, Louis Iglesias was the driver on the move after the restart. Having started 13th, the car racing debutant rapidly rose to third despite a big lock-up as he took the final podium spot from Senecloze at the end of the back straight.

Iglesias couldn’t do much however to eat into the three-second gap to second-year drivers Munoz and Roussel, even though they were separated by only a few tenths of a second.

The safety car did return to the track before the end. A nightmare, pointless first weekend in Europe for Rintaro Sato ended by the Honda protege being tagged into a spin by Lisa Billard as they pursued Pablo Riccobono Bello for 10th, and then driving into the gravel trap as he attempted to recover. Hugo Martiniello also then went off in the same bend.

The race restarted with time only for one last lap, with Munoz holding on to take victory despite a lock up as he prepared for the restart.

Iglesias completed the podium in front of Guillaume Bouzar and Malo Bolliet, another rookie to also make fine progress from 12th on the grid. Mercedes junior Andy Consani ran as high as fifth after the first restart but couldn’t find a way past Senecloze and ended up slipping back to eighth at the flag.

After his win in race two, Arthur Dorison pitted at the end of the formation lap having been due to start sixth. Once the FFSA Academy mechanics got to work under the engine cover, he was able to join the race late and finished three laps down.

Race results (15 laps)