Roussel escapes contact with French F4 rival Munoz to win again at Spa

Photo: FFSA

Jules Roussel escaped contact with Alexandre Munoz to claim a second French Formula 4 win at Spa-Francorchamps in a dramatic race three and close on the championship leader.

Munoz started from pole position ahead of Roussel, who fell to fourth on the initial run to Les Combes behind Louis Iglesias and Montego Maassen. A few corners later there was contact in the chasing pack with Hugo Herrouin running into the back of another car and stopping with damage, necessitating a safety car.

At the restart, Munoz made a good gap while Roussel attacked Igelsias into Les Combes and ended up bouncing across the run-off area, slotting in back behind.

Having lost the place prior to the safety car, Maassen would take third back from Roussel once more and then got a run on Iglesias down the Kemmel straight. With Maassen’s right-hand wheels already on the grass, the pair would make contact that sent Iglesias spinning out of the race. Roussel picked up second while Maassen could continue in third.

Mercedes junior driver Andy Consani was already up to fourth from 13th on the grid, but he then slowed and came to a stop exiting La Source – continuing a challenging run for the rookie, who has scored points just once since his debut pole position and podium at Nogaro. He is not the only manufacturer-backed junior unable to catch a break, with Honda protege Rintaro Sato prevented from taking up his fifth position on the grid by a technical issue.

Roussel soon caught up with Munoz and made a move for the lead on the outside into Les Combes. The pair made contact that sent Roussel bouncing into the air and the run-off area once more, but while Roussel could continue seemingly untroubled, Munoz slowed to retire.

A lap later, Maassen slowed out of second place, the earlier contact with Iglesias seemingly catching up with him, and Roussel now led Arthur Dorison by 3.5 seconds.

Behind, Rayan Caretti and Romeo Leurs were having an almighty battle for third, and were caught by Guillaume Bouzar and Rafael Perard.

After several laps of fighting, Caretti finally seemed to make third place stick and leave Leurs to fend off Bouzar and Perard.

With two minutes left on the clock, Bouzar made a move on Leurs in Eau Rouge and they would make contact – not there or in Raidillon but in the right-hand kink onto the Kemmel straight, just as Perard had ducked out of the slipstream to make it three-wide.

Bouzar was spun across the front of Leurs and tagged Perard, who was sent hard into the barriers on the left-hand-side of the track.

Malo Bolliet managed to avoid the melee, inheriting fourth, but Perard’s damaged car then rolled back across the track in front of Matteo Giaccardi. In Giaccardi’s attempts to avoid he was hit hard from behind by Thomas Senecloze, who was sent sideways into the air and into the barrier on the right-hand side.

With the field slowing under safety car conditions, Roussel took the chequered flag at the end of that lap ahead of Dorison, Bolliet and Leurs.

Race result (11 laps)