In the first qualifying session for the first round of the French F4 Championship on the Bugatti circuit, Anglo-Swiss driver Felix Hirsiger back for the second year clinched his first pole in the category from Australian Joseph Mawson and Lasse Sorensen from Denmark.
After free practice in damp conditions, which required the use of the Kumho rain tyres, the 23 drivers in the 2014 French F4 Championship were able to go head to head on a dry track in the first qualifying session of the year. As soon as it got under way the drivers who were quickest in the free sessions, Félix Hirsiger and Lasse Sorensen, set the pace.
All the runners quickly found their marks and began to up the pace. The first upset came after only a few laps when Swiss driver Paul Hockfelt Jr went off dashing his hopes of a good grid position. After the first third of the session the battle raged and the top of the timesheets kept changing between Hirsiger, Sorensen, Mawson, Valentin Moineault, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Amaury Richard. In the middle of the session Tom Soubiron had to retire and Portuguese driver Joao Carvalho made a fatal error which ended his day. In the meantime Mawson took the no. 1 spot from Sorensen, Hirisiger and Moineault.
Reuben Kressner from Sweden put in a late charge towards the end of the session, which gave him third place but he was dislodged almost immediately by Amaury Richard closely followed by Vladimir Atoev from Russia.
Bryan Elpitiya, who had been among the front-runners in the winter tests, bagged fifth at the very end of qualifying, while Axel Matus from Mexico went off bringing out the yellow flags in the second sector, which prevented the young chargers from improving their lap times. When the track went green again all the drivers went for their final flying laps and Hirsiger clinched the top spot with a perfect last lap. Elpitiya also improved and managed to hang on to his fifth place. Thus Hirsiger bagged pole for the first rendezvous from Australian Mawson who put on a stunning performance. They were followed by Sorensen, Richard, Elpitiya, Atoev, Kressner, Moineault. Simo Laaksonen from Finland Dorian Boccolacci rounded out the top 10. Anouk Abadie, the only woman driver in this championship, continued to learn the tricks of the trade: she will start from 22nd spot.
Mawson will be pole for race 1 tomorrow followed by Hirsiger, Sorensen and Elpitiya. Felix Hirsiger: “I had a few mechanical problems in the opening laps, but after the yellow flag I started to push to get into the rhythm. On my second-last lap Hugo blocked me a little, and on the final one I really went pedal to the metal and it worked!”
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.
Race 1: Saturday 26 April, start at 11h55
Info Auto Sport Academy / © Photo KSP