The French F4 Championship restarts

After a well-deserved summer break the 25 trainee drivers in the 2014 French F4 Championship are ready to get out there and go head to head again on the track. The fourth round of the season will be held on the prestigious Nevers Magny-Cours circuit in Burgundy, and the young chargers are determined to upset the current hierarchy led by Dane Lasse Sorensen with 157 points after the last event at Val de Vienne. Even if the latter looks to have made a step towards clinching the title Dorian Boccolacci, a former FFSA kart team member, Anglo-Swiss Felix Hirsiger and Joseph Mawson from Australia are not too far behind and they will go flat out with a single aim – to knock Sorensen off his perch.

For the championship restart the 25 ASA trainees will converge on the Nevers Magny-Cours circuit to begin racing again after a long summer pause. Since the kick-off of the 2014 French F4 Championship several drivers have been on the topmost step of the podium, and the current leader is Lasse Sorensen from Denmark after his triple at Val de Vienne with seven top-3 finishes including three victories in nine races. He has 157 points and although he has pulled out a clear lead over Dorian Boccolacci in second place and Felix Hirsiger in third, he has to keep a close eye on them as they are determined to oust him from the number one spot. Behind the leading trio in fourth place comes Joseph Mawson from Australia who scored two victories at Le Mans and a third place at Val de Vienne. He will do his best to get back into the winner’s circle on the legendary French circuit and bag a big haul of points. Denis Bulatov from Russia has always been among the front-runners and is lying fifth overall after overtaking Amaury Richard: he has shown some real potential and is very motivated to continue moving up the overall classification.
Rounding out the top 10 are Swiss Paul Hockfelt Jr and Frenchmen Valentin Moineault, Bryan Elpitiya and Erwan Julé. The latter did not score at Val de Vienne and stayed in tenth place. The Auto Sport Academy’s latest recruit Patricio O’Ward from Mexico created a sensation and he is already in 11th position. Hot on his heels comes Russian Vladimir Atoev, Simo Laaksonen from Finland, Swiss David Droux and Valentin Hasse-Clot who are all out to score big points and reshuffle the current order. Reuben Kressner from Sweden, another Finn Niclas Nylund, Joao Carvalho from Portugal and Swiss Albanian Gjergj Haxhiu all have the same intentions. Tom Soubiron, Anouck Abadie, the only woman driver in the field , Mexican Axel Matus, Juan Manuel Jimenez Silva from Colombia and Hugo Sugnot Darniche, the grandson of the famous rally driver have not thrown in the towel and are hoping to score their first points of the season as well as good results in the championship. Belgian Max Defourney, who missed the last round will have his hands full in the remaining four as he battles with the talented drivers on the grid.
Thus, the second part of the season looks like being a thrilling one, and in the fourth round of the championship in Burgundy the youngsters made up of no fewer than12 different nationalities will be determined to shine and give full rein to their talent.
Overall classification of the 2014 French F4 Championship after Le Vigeant (3/7): 1. L. Sorensen, 157 pts / 2. D. Boccolacci, 128 pts / 3. F. Hirsiger, 97 pts / 4. J. Mawson, 90 pts / 5. D. Bulatov, 73 pts / 6. A. Richard, 64 pts / 7. P. Hokfelt Jr, 47 pts / 8. V. Moineault, 44 pts / 9. B. Elpitiya, 42 pts / 10. E. Jule, 34 pts / etc…

Reminder
There are three races per meeting with a single qualifying session of 25-30 minutes. The line-up for the first race will be established according the second-fastest time of each driver in the qualifying session. The classification of race 1 will decide the grid positions for race 2 with the first ten in race 1 starting in reverse order. The other drivers will start in the finishing order. The grid line-up for race 3 will be established according to the fastest time of each driver in qualifying.

Weekend schedule
Friday 5th Septembre: free practice at 09h25 and qualifying at 16h25
Saturday 6th September: race 1 at 11h45 and race 2 at 17h40
Sunday 7th September: race 3 at 11h25

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