On Sunday at Monza, the weather turned rainy for the fifth of seven races in the FIA French F4 Championship, leading to the cancellation of Race 3. In the morning, Vayron had won a second consecutive race against Capietto, the new overall leader.
By moving to the Autodromo di Monza as part of the international GT Open series, the FFSA Academy was probably not expecting such an eventful Sunday. First of all, on the track, during a totally crazy Race 2, which led to a series of upsets and suspense that lasted until the last lap! Then the weather was so unsettled that the organisers were forced to cancel Race 3 for legitimate safety reasons. The amount of water on the tarmac and very poor visibility made it impossible to hold a race with young drivers in the middle of their training.
Vayron: the revelation confirmed!
With the start of Race 2 being given in reverse order to the finish of Race 1 for the top 10, Angelina Favario had the honour of starting from pole position. Due to heavy rain, the Race Director decided to start the drivers behind the safety car. The difficult conditions did not prevent Angelina Favario from resisting the pressure perfectly during the first three laps, before the safety car returned following an incident that led to the successive retirements of Noah Andy, Enzo Géraci and Enzo Richer.
The restart was to prove fatal for Angelina, who was relegated to the back of the field. Pierre-Alexandre Provost stealthily took the lead of the race, before the two main protagonists of the meeting took action. In just one lap, Macéo Capietto moved up from 4th to 1st place with three laps to go. Elliott Vayron, who started 10th just behind Macéo, also found the right feeling in his Mygale-Renault Sport on rain tyres. Back in the wake of Capietto, he tocok the lead and went on to take his second victory of the weekend as well as pocketing the best lap point. In the dry on Saturday and in the rain on Sunday, the recent Feed Racing Volant finalist showed great potential in only his second F4 meeting.
Suspense at the top of the Championship
With Vayron not scoring any points in the Championship, Macéo Capietto left Monza with a big score, which puts him neck and neck with Esteban Masson in the title race. Esteban, who started 14th, did not lose out, however, and also made remarkable progress to 4th place behind Daniel Ligier, another great beneficiary of the Italian trip. Already on the podium the day before, Daniel made every effort to repeat his performance. On this track with little grip, the best drivers of the French Championship were present, with 5th place for Owen Tangevelou and the 6th for the Australian Hugh Barter, who came back from 15th position.
In the F4 Junior class, Alessandro Giusti won again and finished 7th overall ahead of Gaël Julien and Pierre-Alexandre Provost. For his debut in F4, Romain Andriolo managed to complete the top 10 at the last moment ahead of the Swiss Dario Cabanelas, who will not have good memories of this historic Lombard circuit.
Race 2 standings
1 Elliott Vayron (France) with 9 laps
2 Macéo Capietto (France) at 0″688
3 Daniel Ligier (France) at 3″345
4 Esteban Masson (France) at 4″447
5 Owen Tangavelou (France) at 7″461
6 Hugh Barter (Australia) at 8″672
7 Alessandro Giusti (France) at 14″172, 1st Junior
8 Gaël Julien (France) at 15″423
9 Pierre-Alexandre Provost (France) at 16″035, 2nd Junior
10 Romain Andriolo (France) at 16″386
11 Dario Cabanelas (Switzerland) at 18″483, 3rd Junior
12 Angélina Favario (France) at 32″635
13 Enzo Richer (France) at 6 laps
14 Noah Andy (France) at 7 laps
15 Enzo Geraci (France) at 7 laps, 4th Junior
Best lap: Elliott Vayron in 2’14″980 (avg. 154,5 kmh)
Race 3: Cancelled due to bad weather conditions
Provisional French F4 Academy Championship standings after Monza (after tallying)
1 Esteban Masson (France) 181 pts
2 Macéo Capietto (France) 176 pts
3 Hugh Barter (Australie) 139 pts
4 Daniel Ligier (France) 120 pts
5 Gaël Julien (France) 107 pts
6 Owen Tangavelou (France) 105 pts
7 Alessandro Giusti (France) 74 pts, Junior
8 Dario Cabanelas (Suisse) 67 pts, Junior
9 Enzo Geraci (France) 41 pts, Junior
10 Noah Andy (France) 31 pts
11 Pierre-Alexandre Provost (France) 30 pts, Junior
12 Aiden Neate (Royaume-Uni) 30 pts, Junior
13 Angélina Favario (France) 4 pts
14 Adam Szydlowski (Pologne) 2 pts