Sami Meguetounif claims his first French F4 win at Paul Ricard

Photo: KSP Reportages

Sami Meguetounif claimed his first French Formula 4 victory in the reversed grid race of the penultimate round at Paul Ricard.

Meguetounif climbed up from third on the grid to take the win ahead of Romain Leroux and Isack Hadjar.

Ivan Peklin got a good start to take the race lead from pole-sitter Daniel Ligier on the opening lap. Ligier was left to defend against Meguetounif, but couldn’t keep him behind for long.

A wide moment for Ligier dropped him further down the field and out of the battle for the podium positions while Meguetounif rapidly closed the gap to Peklin, bringing Leroux with him.

Peklin put up a strong defence, allowing Ren Sato to close in on the battle for the lead.

After running side-by-side for a series of corners, Meguetounif and Leroux were both able to pass Peklin and pull away from the growing battle for third.

Meguetounif ended the race 2.117 seconds ahead of Leroux, who was a further 1.3s ahead of the battle for third.

Sato managed to get past Peklin into the podium position, but Peklin fought back. Hadjar made it three wide for the spot and Peklin was shuffled back to fifth before a wide moment dropped him all the way down to eighth.

The action allowed Hadjar to pass Sato and snatch third, bumping Sato down to fourth for the second consecutive race.

Ayumu Iwasa finished fifth, ahead of Marijn Kremers and Valentino Catalano. For Iwasa to wrap up the title a round early in the next race, he needs to outscore Sato by eight points in the final race of this weekend.

Owen Tangavelou and Loris Cabirou both managed to pass Peklin in the closing stages of the race, dropping the long-time leader back to 10th by the chequered flag.

Race results