FRENCH F4 CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 – Hugo Chevalier wins at Le Castellet!

Today, the first race in the French F4 Championship set the tone for the weekend. This meeting on the Paul Ricard circuit looks like being an exciting one. Hugo Chevalier drove a masterly race and scored his first victory of the season.

In the late afternoon the young drivers racing in the French F4 Championship lined up on the grid for the start of race 1. It kept the spectators on tenterhooks until the very last minute as the gaps between the cars were tiny. Today, Saturday 14th October, the outcome of the title chase also hangs in the balance as Arthur Rougier has snatched back the lead, but Victor Martins is only eight points behind.

When the lights went out Chevalier, who was on pole for the first race, pulled away from Martins. On the last lap the latter was still second, but lost his place when trying to pull off an overtaking move and Rougier jumped at the opportunity to get past and clinch second position. The driver from Limoges got the best out of his car and passed his rivals one by one. Florian Venturi managed to hang on to third.

Ugo de Wilde drove a consistent race to finish fourth, a big step forward for the Belgian; he had a great scrap with Charles Milesi who was in front of him for a long time. Pierre-Alexandre Jean, involved in a battle with Rougier, for most of the race saw the flag in fifth place followed by Milesi. Despite his mistake on the last lap Martins finished seventh which bodes well for him because of his position on the reversed grid for race 2.

Pierre-Louis Chovet continues to progress as he showed on the track with eighth spot. Thomas Drouet and Jean-Baptiste Mela were both consistent and rounded out the top 10. Noah Watt pulled back a place by slipping past Marvin Klein; they saw the flag in 11th and 12th positions. Stuart White started and finished the race in 13th spot.

Christian Muñoz couldn’t do any better than 14th despite a few attempts to catch the drivers in front. Amaury Cordeel suceeded in moving up a few places early on in the race and slotted into 11th, which he was unable to hold onto and he fell back to 15th.