Hirsiger doubles up!

Anglo-Swiss Félix Hirsiger scored his second win of the weekend at Magny-Cours after an impeccable drive. Into second came Australian Joseph Mawson followed by Lasse Sorensen from Denmark in third.

The final race of the weekend took place in optimal conditions in the Burgundy region for the 24 trainee drivers in the French F4 Championship.
Félix Hirsiger, who was in stunning form all weekend on the Magny Cours circuit, was on pole after his fantastic qualifying session ahead of championship leader Lasse Sorensen. These two drivers were in front of two others who had provided a lot of on-track action during the weekend, Joseph Mawson and Swiss David Droux. On the third row were two of the front-runners in race 2, Valentin Hasse Clot and Russian Denis Bulatov.

The start took place without incident and Hirsiger shot into the lead from the rest of the pack. By the end of the first lap he had already opened up a gap of more than a second over Sorensen in second place.
Hasse-Clot and Vladimir Atoev both moved up a place at the expense of Droux while Swiss Paul Hokfelt Jr got the better of Dorian Boccolacci.

As lap 2 began Mawson overtook Sorensen to snatch second place and a few instants later Bryan Elpitiya and Vladimir Aotev collided under braking in the Adelaide hairpin and both retired. Boccolacci was an innocent victim of this crash and fell back to 12th.
Up front the gaps between the leaders began to shrink and Mawson closed the gap to Hirsiger. Sorensen in third was also going pedal to the metal to make up ground. Valentin Moineault who was in 13th spot on the grid fought his way up to eighth after five laps. Droux and Bulatov were involved in a ding-dong battle for sixth place.

At half-distance Hirsiger was still in the lead, but he couldn’t relax as Mawson was gradually closing the gap with Sorensen hot on his heels as he reckoned he still had a chance of victory.
Hass-Clot was hanging on to fourth and he had pulled in the leaders making the battle for the win a four-cornered one! The Frenchman was ready to pounce on the slightest mistake by the leaders. In front of him Sorensen took advantage of a mistake by Mawson to snatch second place but the Aussie repassed him almost immediately. It was a wake-up call for Mawson.

With five laps to go the four drivers in front bunched up as the battle intensified between Hirsiger, Mawson, Sorensen and Hasse-Clot who was also in contention for victory. It was wheel-to-wheel racing of the highest order!

In the mid-field, Belgian Max Defourny was finding his marks and was in 10th place after passing Mexican Patricio O’Ward. Dorian Boccolacci was trying to fight his way back after the early-race incident.
It now looked like there would be no further changes among the first four. Behind them came Hokfelt Jr and Droux who both drove solid races in fifth and sixth positions. They led the winner of race 2 Russian Denis Bulatov who had to fend off the attacks of Valentin Moineault.

There was a final twist on the last lap as Mawson suddenly closed the gap to Hirsiger and tried to get past him in the final corner. To no avail as the Anglo-Swiss held on to score another victory. They finished in front of Sorensen, who had a good weekend in view of the championship, and Hass-Clot who added precious points to his tally.

Rendezvous for the next round at Nogaro on 26-27-28 September.

Info Auto Sport Academy /  © Photo KSP