Photo: FFSA Academy
Yani Stevenheydens reinstated his French Formula 4 lead with a dominant win in the final race of the Magny-Cours weekend, having come close to winning the reversed-grid second race too.
Stevenheydens saw his championship advantage reduced to just four points after being beaten to the race one win by rival Jules Caranta, but it was the Belgian who made better progress in race two from 10th on the grid. He made up half of the places after an early safety car restart as several cars ahead of him tangled in the Adelaide hairpin, triggering another caution period while the car of Jason Leung was recovered.
Going on to pass Arthur Dorison and Leonardo Megna to move into the top three before a third safety car period, Stevenheydens got by the polesitter Enzo Caldaras at Adelaide at the last restart and soon latched onto the rear of leader Karel Schulz, but couldn’t find a way past in the final two laps. Schulz, who had started third on the grid, held on to win by just two tenths of a second.
Caranta was delayed navigating the lap three Adelaide tangle – and passed into Nurburgring by Stevenheydens just before the race was neutralised again – and ended up fifth, while Taito Kato was hit by Augustin Bernier in the attack that triggered the incident and finished outside the points in 10th.
Stevenheydens was later penalised 15 seconds relating to his start procedure, dropping him out of the points to 17th and putting Caranta into the points lead.
There was frantic work under the engine cover of Caranta’s car in the moments before race three and he didn’t make the best getaway when the lights went out, slipping from second on the grid to fourth by the first corner.
Kato meanwhile leapt from fifth to second off the line and was just 0.8s behind Stevenheydens at the end of the first lap, but would have no answer to the Belgian’s pace.
Stevenheydens gradually pulled away to win by 6.324s. Kato in turn was not troubled by Bernier, who held off Caranta for third on the road but received a five-second penalty that demoted him to fifth behind Montego Maassen.
Leonardo Megna was running sixth until he slowed and retired inside the final five minutes, with Rayan Caretti passing Frank Porte Ruiz to finish sixth.
After having to retire early from her first single-seater contest on Saturday morning, Alpine-supported Lisa Billard finished 19th and 17th in the subsequent two races.
Results round-up
Race 2 (10 laps)
1 Karel Schulz
2 Enzo Caldaras +0.942s
3 Leonardo Megna +1.371s
4 Jules Caranta +3.485s
5 Arthur Dorison +4.160s
6 Frank Porte Ruiz +4.202s
7 Alex O’Grady +5.480s
8 Taito Kato +5.546s
9 Alexandre Munoz +5.899s
10 Chester Kieffer +6.332s
Fastest lap: Stevenheydens, 1m42.133s
Race 3 (13 laps)
1 Yani Stevenheydens
2 Kato +6.324s
3 Caranta +9.641s
4 Montego Maassen +9.979
5 Augustin Bernier +13.361s
6 Rayan Caretti +18.707
7 O’Grady +20.173
8 Porte Ruiz +20.468
9 Caldaras +25.378s
10 Munoz +29.572s
Pole: Stevenheydens
Fastest lap: Stevenheydens, 1m39.790s
Championship standings
1 Stevenheydens 216 2 Caranta 207 3 Kato 192 4 Kieffer 109 5 Caretti 97 6 Bernier 74 7 Porte Ruiz 68 8 Megna 48 9 Roussel 45 10 O’Grady 44