Vayron dominates for third win of guest appearances in French F4

Photo: KSP Reportages

French Formula 4’s star guest driver Elliott Vayron continued his remarkable recent form with a dominant win at Paul Ricard.

Vayron started second on the reversed grid behind Thanapongpan Sutomno, who fended off his attacks for the opening lap but simply did not have the pace to match.

After passing Sutomno on lap two, Vayron streaked clear to win the 11-lap race by a huge 10.037 seconds.

Sutomno did will to hold onto second place until lap seven, when he was passed by Owen Tangavelou, Dario Cabanelas and Gael Julien. Being compromised as he was passed only opened him up for more attacks, and a lap later he had dropped another five places to finish outside of the points.

Tangavelou finished the race in the runner-up spot, having passed Cabanelas while in the wake of Sutomno, and Daniel Ligier secured third despite being in the midfield pack halfway through the race. Sutomno’s own defences against Cabanelas early in the race did come under investigation.

Ligier was able to claw his way past Alessandro Giusti and title contender Esteban Masson, then after Maceo Capietto dropped back following a failed attack on Gael Julien he made up another spot – which became two as Sutomno fell down the order.

Masson followed Ligier past Capietto, and they then attacked Julien and got by him for fourth on the penultimate lap. While Ligier dragged past Cabanelas at the finish to then pinch third, Masson got himself caught up with Julien again and ended up out of the race.

This promoted Capietto to fifth, just ahead of Hugh Barter and Julien.

Race results (11 laps)