The ASA trainees will again be able to display their talent in the eagerly-awaited final round of the World Series by Renault, the sixth out of seven in the French F4 Championship, on the Jerez circuit in Spain. Danish driver Lasse Sorensen’s domination in the three races in the GT Tour meeting at Nogaro has not dented the motivation of the ambitious drivers still in contention for the championship title. As the end of the season approaches the spectators will enjoy closely-fought races full of ding-dong battles.
The 24 drivers will leave France for the second-last round of the season as they will go to the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in Spain. The championship is now entering its final stages, and even though Lasse Sorensen enjoys a big lead with 274 points in the overall classification after his three victories at Nogaro putting him in a position to clinch the title this coming weekend, the drivers who are still in with a chance of winning the French F4 Championship will not play merely walk-on roles, and are dtermined to take the fight to the provisional victor of the 2014 class. Anglo-Swiss Felix Hirsiger holds second place with 205 points thanks to his second and two third places in Nogaro. Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci who was in the top-3 in races 1 and 3 will arrive in Spain with 192 points and is still a potential top-3 finisher overall like Australian Joseph Mawson with 142 points. Mawson, however, has to keep an eye out for his closest rival Russian Denis Bulatov in fifth place with 122 points. The latter knows it will be difficult to win, but is hoping to finish in the top 3 in the final overall classification even if he didn’t score a victory in the last round. After this coming weekend the first five in the French F4 Championship ratings will have a day’s testing in Formula Renault 2.0 in the continuation of the World Series by Renault final. Valentin Hasse Clot’s late charge in sixth place will not be good enough to give him a chance to take part in these tests.
Mexican Patricio O’Ward, who arrived at the Auto Sport Academy during the season, is currently in seventh place in front of Swiss Paul Hokfelt Junior who left Nogaro in eighth spot. French duo Valentin Moineault and Amaury Richard round out the top 10.
Russian Vladimir Atoev in 11th place after a good fight back is hoping to move further up the classification while Erwan Julé, who did not have a great meeting in the Gers, will do everything he can to improve on his 12th position like Bryan Elpitiya who follows him with 47 points. Hot on their heels come Swiss driver David Droux, Simo Laaksonen from Finland, Swede Reuben Kressner, another Finn Niclas Nylund, Joao Carvalho from Portugal and Swiss-Albanian Gjergj Haxhiu: they are all determined to gain places and score the maximum number of points. Tom Soubiron, Anouck Abadie, the only woman driver in the field, Mexican Axel Matus, Juan Manuel Jimenez Silva from Colombia and Hugo Sugnot Darniche, grandson of famous rally driver Bernard Darniche, will do their best with a single aim: to put on a good performance in the championship.
The 24 Auto Sport Academy drivers know that there are still precious points up for grabs in the last six races before the end of the 2014 French F4 Championship.
Reminder
Three races per meeting with a single 25-30-minute qualifying session. The line-up for the first race will be fixed 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 grid line-up for race 3 will be established according to the fastest time of each driver in qualifying.
Weekend rendezvous
Friday 17th October: free practice at 11h10
Saturday 18th October: qualifying at 09h40 and race 1 at 16h45
Dimanche 19 October: race 2 at 10h20 and race 3 at 16h55
Info Auto Sport Academy / © Photo KSP