After a Saturday which failed to live up to his expectations, Yani Stevenheydens dominated Race 3 at Magny-Cours, beating Taito Kato and Jules Caranta, his two rivals in the French F4 Championship, in which the Belgian confirmed his position as leader.
A large part of Race 3 was decided at the start. Yani Stevenheydens held on to 1st place thanks to a perfect start, while Taito Kaito leapt from the third row to move into 2nd. Jules Caranta was also overtaken by Augustin Bernier and Leonardo Megna as he started from the front row, but regained 4th place from the Italian on the long Magny-Cours straight. Although the leading quartet was well in place and rather quiet, intense duels ignited the chasing pack. Frank Porte Ruiz (+2), Alex O’Grady (+3) and Rayan Caretti (+5) all got off to excellent starts and were among the leaders of the morning race.
Title contenders confirm
With his third consecutive fastest lap in this fifth race of the season, Belgium’s Stevenheydens quickly distanced himself from his rivals and won by a wide margin of more than 6 seconds, proof of his superiority on Sunday. Behind him, Japan’s Kato kept the Frenchmen Bernier and Caranta at bay. Caranta tried to intimidate at times, but was unable to take the lead. A penalty imposed on Bernier definitively fixed the podium, with Caranta on the third step and Bernier dropping back to 5th position. Already 5th in Race 1, Germany’s Montego Maassen ended his best meeting of the season on a positive note, this time in an excellent 4th place.
For the places of honour, the final hierarchy took a long time to emerge. Thanks to a magnificent attacking run, Thai driver Caretti won his duel with Irishman O’Grady and Andorran Porte Ruiz for 6th place. Enzo Caldaras further increased his points tally by finishing 9th ahead of Alexandre Munoz, who continued to show his progress after moving up five places.
There were a number of incidents and collisions in the field. In the midst of a comeback, Luxemburger Chester Kieffer was forced to retire, while Arthur Dorison lost precious places and his chances of scoring points. Canadian Jason Leung, German Mathilda Paatz, who was in the top 10 at the start of the race, and Italian Leonardo Megna added to the list of retirements. Dylan Estre and Roméo Leurs managed to sneak through, before coming up against Munoz in their quest for points. Lisa Billard, who started 22nd, finished her first F4 meeting with the FFSA Academy in 17th position, not far from a group including Karel Schulz, Louis Schlesser and Jules Roussel.
In the French Championship standings, Caranta had managed to regain the lead from Stevenheydens on Saturday evening, but it was the Belgian who left Magny-Cours at the top of the standings with a 216-point advantage, compared to Caranta’s 207. Although the gap to Kato has widened, the Japanese driver has not had his last word with 192 points. Kieffer remains 4th ahead of Caretti, but the final podium is getting further and further away for the Luxembourger.
> Race 3 standings
1 Yani Stevenheydens (Belgium) with 13 laps
2 Taito Kato (Japan) at 6.324
3 Jules Caranta (France) at 9.641
4 Montego Maassen (Germany) at 9.979
5 Augustin Bernier (France) at 13.361
6 Rayan Caretti (Thailand) at 18.707
7 Alex O’Grady (Ireland) at 20.173
8 Frank Porte Ruiz (Andorra) at 20.468
9 Enzo Caldaras (France) at 25.378
10 Alexandre Munoz (France) at 29.572
11 Dylan Estre (France) at 30.777
12 Roméo Leurs (France) at 32.525
13 Arthur Dorison (France) at 32.743
14 Karel Schulz (France) at 34.286
15 Louis Schlesser (France) at 34.520
16 Jules Roussel (France) at 35.929
17 Lisa Billard (France) at 37.317
18 Edouard Borgna (France) at 41.063
19 Tom Le Brech (France) at 41.362
20 Arjun Chheda (India) at 41.725
21 Paul Roques (France) at 47.585
22 Mathilda Paatz (Germany) with 10 laps
23 Leonardo Megna (Italy) with 10 laps
24 Chester Kieffer (Luxembourg) with 6 laps
25 Jason Leung (Canada) with 2 laps
26 Gabriel Doyle-Parfait (Great Britain), DNS
FL: Stevenheydens in 1:39.790 (avg. 159.1 km/h)
> Provisional Championship standings after Magny-Cours
1 Stevenheydens 216 pts, 2 Caranta 207 pts, 3 Kato 192 pts, 4 Kieffer 109 pts, 5 Caretti 97 pts, 6 Bernier 74 pts, 7 Porte Ruiz 68 pts, 8 Megna 48 pts, 9 Roussel 45 pts, 10 O’Grady 44 pts, 11 Caldaras 33 pts, 12 Maassen 26 pts, 13 Leung 25 pts, 14 Dorison 21 pts, 15 Schulz et Estre 20 pts, 17 Doyle-Parfait 17 pts, 18 Munoz 3 pts, 19 Borgna 1 pt.
> Next races from 13th to 15th September at Dijon (21) and from 4th to 6th October at Paul Ricard (83).
