Home Formula 4French F4 Peugeot beats Giltaire in final-lap fight for French F4 victory at Misano

Peugeot beats Giltaire in final-lap fight for French F4 victory at Misano

by Ida Wood

Photo: KSP Reportages

Enzo Peugeot won from pole in French Formula 4’s third race at Misano in Italy, with most of the action taking place behind the safety car.

Frank Porte Ruiz was spun out of 11th by Leonardo Megna and third-placed Romain Andriolo broke off the left endplate on Andrei Duna’s front wing with an agressive defence on lap one, then on lap two Yani Stevenheydens and Max Reis had an incident at turn four that led to Reis ending up in the gravel at the next corner.

The safety car came out as a result of that, and the lap five restart was short-lived as Hiyu Yamakoshi mounted the rear of Megna’s car and both were out on the spot.

Racing was neutralised for a second time until lap eight, with the top nine positions unchanged from the grid order. Finally there were was some overtaking, as Kevin Foster passed Edgar Pierre for fifth and Garrett Berry moved past Karel Schulz and Louis Schlesser into seventh.

On the next lap Duna fell out of fourth place as he mysteriously slowed then came to a stop on track, while Peugeot had to get defensive against Evan Giltaire.

Peugeot ran wide exiting the final corner on lap 10, the penultimate lap of the race, and he then cut turn one to stay ahead. But Giltaire did manage to get past, briefly, and they then ran side-by-side through the next corners.

A lock-up from Peugeot meant Giltaire moved into the lead again, and this time Peugeot drove into the back of him. The contact was light enough for Giltaire not to spin around, and he held off Peugeot until the penultimate corner.

Peugeot went off-track on the run to the corner, rejoined before the turn-in but cut across the inside kerbs to actually make the corner. That put him alongside Giltaire as they exited it, and Giltaire then ran wide and off-track.

Going into the final corner it was Peugeot, who led, and despite running way off as he exited the corner he still held on to win and build his points lead over his main title rival.

Foster got alongside Andriolo several times on the last lap but could not deny him third place, and Pierre pipped Berry to fifth by just 0.076 seconds.

Race result (11 laps)
Pos Driver Time
1 Enzo Peugeot
2 Evan Giltaire +0.308s
3 Romain Andriolo +1.067s
4 Kevin Foster +1.462s
5 Edgar Pierre +2.219s
6 Garrett Berry +2.295s
7 Louis Schlesser +3.775s
8 Karel Schulz +4.488s
9 Enzo Richer +4.711s
10 Pol Lopez +4.966s
11 Adrien Closmenil +5.992
12 Tom Kalender +8.599s
13 Frank Porte Ruiz +17.792s
14 Jason Leung +12.813s
15 Paul Alberto +12.973s
16 Yaroslav Veselaho +13.572s
17 Luca Savu +13.857s
18 Joao Paulo Diaz Balesteiro +14.701s
19 Yani Stevenheydens +19.580s
20 Gabriel Doyle-Parfait +1 lap
Ret Leonardo Megna
Ret Hiyu Yamakoshi
Ret Frank Porte Ruiz
Ret Max Reis
DNS Edouard Borgna
Pole: Peugeot, 1m37.469s   Fastest lap: Peugeot, 1m38.386s

Championship standings
1 Peugeot 230   2 Giltaire 221   3 Andriolo 149   4 Foster 148   5 Yamakoshi 107   6 Berry 94   7 Stevenheydens 68   8 Lopez 53   9 Pierre 53   10 Richer 44