Photo: Top Speed

The 2026 calendars for international Formula 4 championships F1 Academy, F4 South East Asia, French F4 and Nordic 4 have been revealed.

The all-female F1 Academy will continue to run exclusively on Formula 1’s support bill, with seven rounds in six countries. More can be read about next season’s schedule here.

F4 SEA’s calendar has been distributed by Evans GP, one of the championship’s teams. From its inaugural season in 2016 through to 2019, F4 SEA’s grid was centrally run by Meritus GP.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to no racing until 2023, when the grid featured multiple teams for the first time. There was no 2024 season, then this year’s calendar was almost identical to what is planned for 2026.

Sepang will host round one (April 24-26) next year, then the field heads to Thailand to race at Buriram (May 23/24) and the Bangsaen street circuit (July 3-5). Bangsaen was first visted this year, with F4 SEA supporting its grand prix. The final two rounds of 2026 are at Sepang on August 21-23 and September 18-20.

French F4 is still centrally run, and reduces from six rounds to five next year but retains its event abroad.

The first four rounds, at Nogaro (April 4-6), Dijon (May 15-17), Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium (June 19-21) and Magny-Cours (July 31-August 2), are in the same order as and in very similar dates to in 2025. Long-time venues Ledenon and Le Mans are dropped, and Paul Ricard returns on October 9-11 as the finale after a year off the calendar.

The Denmark-based Nordic 4 has historically been open to F4 and Formula 5 cars, and is now part of Nordic Championship Formula (NCF) which combines its grids with Formula Renault 1.6 cars from Sweden’s Formula Nordic championship.

In 2026, the paddock’s first-generation F4 cars will be retired and Danish manufacturer Aquila has developed a faster, halo-shod car taking technical inspiration from Formula 1000 to replace it.

There will be nine NCF rounds next year, with four making up the Danish championships. The season starts with trips to Padborg Park and Jyllandsringen, mainstays since Danish F4’s inaugural season in 2017, then Karlskoga features for a fourth successive year as the starting point of a three-round Swedish leg.

Sturup Raceway returns, having hosted Danish F4 in 2022, then the paddock goes to Kinnekulle for the first time since 2019.

Norway’s Hermann Tilke-designed Rudskogen track was raced on by Danish F4 in 2018, and it will host NCF next August. The championship is then part of the Danish Grand Prix at Jyllandsringen and Padborg Park’s Night Race event.

Ring Djursland drops off the schedule after nine seasons, but in October there will be exhibition races at Dutch Grand Prix venue Zandvoort.

2026 Nordic 4 calendar

The post International F4 championships reveal their 2026 calendars appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: KSP

Alexandre Munoz crowned his French Formula 4 title success with victory in the last race of the season at Le Mans.

After he built his campaign on a pair of double victories in the opening two rounds of the year, this was Munoz’s first win in the four meetings since.

He took the win by just 0.294 seconds over Arthur Dorison, who pipped Jules Roussel to finish second in the championship on countback.

Dorison and Roussel shared the front row of the grid but neither would emerge from the first lap with the lead. Roussel was hit by Rintaro Sato and forced to retire, while Sato – after starting fifth – managed to take the lead in front of Munoz and Dorison as the safety car was deployed.

Munoz took the lead from Sato after the restart, and Dorison followed him through soon afterwards, prior to another safety car intervention following a clash that ended the race of Annabelle Brian.

When the race resumed once more, Munoz pulled away from Dorison, only for his rival to respond later on, setting the fastest lap in the process as he closed the gap. While Dorison couldn’t find a way past Munoz, the bonus point for his fastest lap proved crucial in beating Roussel to be championship runner-up, tied on points but with five victories to Roussel’s two.

Guillaume Bouzar completed the podium, his sixth in the last four rounds. He finishes fifth in the championship as the top rookie, behind Rayan Caretti who came fourth in the final race.

Sato took the chequered flag in fifth but was eventually penalised 31s for causing the contact with Roussel, dropping him to 22nd.

Race results (16 laps)

The post Munoz crowns French F4 season with victory in Le Mans finale appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: KSP

Alexandre Munoz clinched the French Formula 4 title on the penultimate day of the season at Le Mans.

Munoz and his championship rival Jules Roussel both lost places from their second-row starting slots in race one, and would end up finishing sixth and seventh – Munoz passing Roussel to eke out his points lead to 29 points.

Louis Iglesias had no such trouble from pole position and managed to convert it into his maiden win.

He managed to resist the pressure of Rintaro Sato, who leapt from fifth to third at then passed Rafael Perard, who had made similar progress from row three. Guillaume Bouzar was also a forward mover to finish fourth, relegating front row starter Arthur Dorison to fifth.

Malo Bolliet led the reversed-grid race two from start to finish only to receive a five-second penalty for unsporting behaviour that demoted him to fourth and promoted Matteo Giaccardi to a maiden win. Bouzar and Dorison completed the revised top three.

Munoz and Roussel started together on the fourth row. Munoz initially held sixth ahead of his rival, only to fall to ninth in the middle of the race.

Roussel however would make contact with Hugo Herrouin, which would drop him back behind Munoz and ultimately result in a hefty penalty that dropped him to 22nd in the results. For Munoz, fifth at the flag just ahead of Roussel was already enough to secure the title.

Results round-up
Race 1 (19 laps)
1 Louis Iglesias 31m18.705s
2 Rintaro Sato +1.284s
3 Rafael Perard +5.041s
4 Guillaume Bouzar +7.659s
5 Arthur Dorison +10.497s
6 Alexandre Munoz +13.259s
7 Jules Roussel +13.914s
8 Rayan Caretti +14.740s
9 Malo Bolliet +15.440s
10 Matteo Giaccardi +16.356s
Fastest lap: Dorison, 1m37.681s

Race 2 (17 laps)
1 Giaccardi 31m37.728s
2 Bouzar +2.345s
3 Dorison +4.008s
4 Bolliet +4.425s
5 Munoz +5.165s
6 Iglesias +5.949s
7 Romeo Leurs +7.249s
8 Thomas Senecloze +8.298s
9 Lisa Billard +8.886s
10 Niccolo Pirri +9.366s
FL: Munoz, 1m38.054s

Championship standings
1 Munoz 222   2 Roussel 186   3 Dorison 167  4 Caretti 141   5 Bouzar 130   6 Perard 95   7 Iglesias 105   8 Montego Maassen 78   9 Bolliet 84   10 Sato 81

The post Munoz becomes French F4 champion with a race to spare appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: KSP

Louis Iglesias and Arthur Dorison claimed a pole position each for the French Formula 4 season finale at Le Mans having ended qualifying just 0.003 seconds apart.

Malo Bolliet had set the pace in practice on Friday morning, some 0.485s ahead of the next quickest driver, the championship leader Alex Munoz. Dorison was third, with Iglesias a second off in eighth and Munoz’s title rival Jules Roussel down in 16th.

Track limits infringements would dominate qualifying on the Bugatti layout. Iglesias was one of the cleaner drivers in this respect and his fastest lap of 1m37.418s set just past the halfway mark was legal and good enough to secure pole for race one.

Dorison went quicker than Iglesias when he crossed the line a few seconds later but that time would be deleted. He then fell shy by just 0.003s on his next attempt.

He would post two quicker laps – the best being a 1m37.244s after the chequered flag – but these too would not count. He also recorded two legal laps within four hundredths of his best, ensuring he secured pole for race three based on second fastest times.

Munoz also set two laps faster than that of Iglesias in the middle of the session but both would be deleted. He went on to set a time good enough for fourth, one place behind Roussel.

Roussel, who has a 27-point deficit to close in the championship, will start second for race three ahead of Iglesias and Munoz.

Qualifying 15th on debut was French-American driver Maverick McKenna, who has tested in USF Juniors this year with his karting team Jay Howard Driver Development, and was one of 12 semi-finalists in the FEED Racing shootout.

He wasn’t among the six drivers who proceeded to the final at Magny-Cours this week, where Yuvel Rosen succeeded Bolliet as the winner of a paid-for French F4 seat for 2026.

Israeli 18-year-old Rosen beat 16-year-old Swiss karter Mathys Sarua-Pictet, former stock car racer Troy Adams’ 14-year-old son Truly, and the French trio of Clement Outran (16), Mattheo Dauvergne (14) and Sacha Bouder (17) in the final.

Outran had come into the final as the most established of the sixtet, having come fifth in the 2024 IAME Euro and Benelux series on X30 Senior karts.

Rosen had raced Rotax Senior karts in central Europe in 2024, and made international outings this year.

Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Louis Iglesias 1m37.418s
2 Arthur Dorison +0.003s
3 Jules Roussel +0.077s
4 Alexander Munoz +0.165s
5 Rintaro Sato +0.214s
6 Rafael Perard +0.250s
7 Guillaume Bouzar +0.297s
8 Hugo Herrouin +0.462s
9 Matteo Giaccardi +0.470s
10 Malo Bolliet +0.541s

Race 3 grid
1 Dorison 1m37.453s
2 Roussel +0.098s
3 Iglesias +0.139s
4 Munoz +0.172s
5 Sato +0.278s
6 Bouzar +0.376s
7 Giaccardi +0.506s
8 Bolliet +0.573s
9 Perard +0.636s
10 Romeo Leurs +0.654s

The post Iglesias and Dorison share poles for French F4’s Le Mans finale appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: KSP Reportages

Arthur Dorison, Guillaume Bouzar and Rintaro Sato were the winners in French Formula 4’s penultimate round at Ledenon.

Having won the reversed-grid race in each of the first four rounds, this time Dorison converted pole position in race one into victory.

It was a lights-to-flag success, and Jules Roussel held second throughout but was gradually gapped by Dorison who had a 2.4-second gap at the end of the 20-lap race.

Championship leader Alexandre Munoz started third, and lost the position on lap two to Louis Iglesias. He tried getting back ahead on lap three, but they made contact.

Mounoz retired, and Iglesias dropped behind Rayan Caretti and Bouzar. On lap eight he was then overtaken by Montego Maassen, but finished the race 20th rather than sixth after being handed a 30s penalty. The race was light on overtaking.

Rafael Perard had reversed-grid pole for race two later on Saturday, ahead of race one retiree Sato and Malo Bolliet. Wet weather hit the track, and it led to plenty of opening lap drama due to tricky conditions.

Four drivers failed to make it to lap two, including crashers Roussel and Maassen, and the race had to be restarted. Green flag action began again on lap three, and Perard lasted one lap in the lead before Sato got past as Bouzar overtook Bolliet for third.

Bouzar got ahead of Perard on lap six, and took the lead on lap nine. Not long after Sato was relegated to third by Munoz, who had started eighth. Although it looked like his charge would continue, Bouzar’s pace was strong enough to claim his maiden win with a 2.55s gap.

Sato was a further 5.777s behind, just ahead of Perard and Iglesias. Dorison’s superb reversed-grid form in 2025 came to an end as he started 10th and finished 11th.

Race three began with Bolliet making his way from fourth to first ahead of Dorison, as fellow front row starter Roussel dropped to seventh. Dorison was relegated to fourth on lap two, then sixth. A safety car period interrupted his descent, but after that he retired.

At that point Sato, who had started ninth, was leading. He had climbed to sixth onlap one, gained two spots on lap three to make the podium then Louis Iglesias and Munoz. After his one lap in the lead, Iglesias quickly fell to 11th and only recovered one spot through the rest of the race.

Sato and Munoz pulled away from the rest of the field, with Caretti getting into third and holding several drivers off until he was overtaken by Bouzar on the last lap.

Roussel gained back one spot to finish sixth, and remains Munoz’s closest rival in the four-way title fight with one round to go.

Results round-up
Race 1 (20 laps)
1 Arthur Dorison 30m10.967s
2 Jules Roussel +2.399s
3 Rayan Caretti +6.087s
4 Guillaume Bouzar +6.763s
5 Montego Maassen +7.574s
6 Malo Bolliet +13.189s
7 Rafael Perard +15.037s
8 Matteo Giaccardi +15.245s
9 Romeo Leurs +15.907s
10 Hugo Herrouin +16.473s
Fastest lap: Dorison, 1m21.411s

Race 2 (18 laps)
1 Bouzar 1h01m25.688s
2 Alexandre Munoz +2.550s
3 Rintaro Sato +8.327s
4 Perard +8.669s
5 Louis Iglesias +9.222s
6 Caretti +9.895s
7 Leurs +11.320s
8 Bolliet +12.404s
9 Giaccardi +15.956s
10 Hugo Martiniello +18.057s
FL: Bouzar, 1m27.947s

Race 3 (21 laps)
1 Sato 30m26.968s
2 Munoz +2.490s
3 Bouzar +10.140s
4 Caretti +10.685s
5 Leurs +10.812s
6 Roussel +11.839s
7 Maassen +12.267s
8 Herrouin +13.692s
9 Giaccardi +14.308s
10 Iglesias +15.442s
FL: Munoz, 1m21.638s

Championship standings
1 Munoz 207   2 Roussel 180   3 Dorison 145  4 Caretti 137   5 Bouzar 106   6 Perard 80   7 Maassen 78   8 Iglesias 75   9 Bolliet 74   10 Sato 63

The post Dorison, Bouzar and Sato win in French F4 at Ledenon appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: KSP Reportages

Arthur Dorison took his first two pole positions in French Formula 4 during the sole qualifying session at Ledenon on Friday.

The half-hour session was the culmination of two days of track action, with Thursday being filled by pre-event testing.

A 1m22.150s benchmark was set by Montego Maassen in the first session, and 0.166 seconds behind in second place was Louis Iglesias.

Only 0.018s slower than him was Guillaume Bouzar, whose pace was even worse in session two but he topped the times with a 1m22.655s lap. Iglesias was second again, this time trailing by 0.245s and with a 0.032s gap to Jules Roussel in third.

The pace was lowered in session three, and Rayan Caretti was on top for a long time with a 1m21.414s lap. But late on Alexandre Munoz was able to outpace him by 0.017s to snatch top spot.

Malo Bolliet was only 0.071s off Munoz in third, and 0.177s covered the top six. Most set their best laptimes fairly early in their run plans, and 10 drivers beat Maassen’s old benchmark.

A 1m21.536s put Bouzar on top again in session four, but fifth overall, and he had a 0.319s gap to Caretti. Munoz was 0.372s off Bouzar’s pace in third, and Maassen broke the 1m22s barrier in four.

Maassen improved to 1m21.866s in session five to climb to 10th overall and be the long-time leader on the session timesheet until Bouzar beat him by 0.034s with his last lap. Munoz, Caretti and Dorison also peaked early on in third, fourth and fifth.

Friday morning practice featured a far faster pace, and a second covered the top 15 drivers. Maassen went quickest with a 1m20.925s lap, and Iglesias joined him in lapping sub-1m21s late on with a lap just 0.013s slower than his own.

Rafael Perard was third, 0.23s off Maassen, and Roussel trailed by 0.37s in fourth. Just 0.018s split him, Bouzar and Dorison, while championship leader Munoz was 0.499s off the pace in seventh.

Qualifying was a half-hour session in the afternoon, and in that time half of the 30 drivers had laptimes deleted for track limits abuse.

Dorison prevailed in the battle for pole with his 14th lap of 20, posting a 1m21.349s to head Roussel by 0.076s. They had toppled Munoz, whose 1m21.458s was the time to beat early on.

Iglesias was also within 0.2s of pole, and a late improvement meant Caretti took fifth from Bouzar by 0.001s. In turn, Bouzar had earlier on demoted Maassen one spot by 0.008s and Bolliet by 0.038s.

American debutant Jack Iliffe, winner of the WSK Euro Series for OK Junior karts last year, was 2.452s off pole in 28th place.

Dorison earned another pole with his second-best laptime, again by small margins. A 1m21.467s earned him first place on the grid by just 0.004s over Roussel, with Iglesias and Bolliet 0.154s and 0.182s off pole respectively.

Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Arthur Dorison 1m21.349s
2 Jules Roussel +0.076s
3 Alexandre Munoz +0.109s
4 Louis Iglesias +0.189s
5 Rayan Caretti +0.260s
6 Guillaume Bouzar +0.261s
7 Montego Maassen +0.269s
8 Malo Bolliet +0.299s
9 Rintaro Sato +0.475s
10 Rafael Perard +0.513s

Race 3 grid
1 Dorison 1m21.467s
2 Roussel +0.004s
3 Iglesias +0.153s
4 Bolliet +0.182s
5 Munoz +0.203s
6 Caretti +0.211s
7 Maassen +0.355s
8 Bouzar +0.376s
9 Sato +0.480s
10 Romeo Leurs +0.482s

The post Dorison doubles up in French F4 qualifying at Ledenon appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Dutch Photo Agency

The finalists for this year’s FEED Racing France and Richard Mille Young Talent Academy shootouts have been named.

Launched in 2019, FEED Racing France is a scheme and racing school founded and fronted by 1997 Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve and former CART driver Patrick Lemarie that has used its shootout to provide a scholarship for drivers to race in French Formula 4.

That element has not been mentioned through the promotion of this year’s contest, but FEED’s website still lists a “competition to win a season in F4” as part of its business.

The 2025 Volant F4 was a multi-stage process starting with a five-day pay-to-drive course in F4 cars, which attracted 57 drivers.

There was then to be a quarter-final day and a 16-driver semi-final day, both split into four sessions and being pay-to-drive, then a 10-session final for six drivers on September 22-25.

There were 24 drivers who automatically qualified for the quarter-finals, and nine named as wildcards to form a list of 33 to fill the next stage’s 32 slots. They were split into two groups of 16, each contesting a whole day earlier this month.

Six drivers from each quarter-final day at Magny-Cours qualified for the semi-finals there (meaning 12 participants), then half of those progressed to the final.

That list consists of 18-year-old Israeli Yuvan Rosen, 16-year-old Swiss karter Mathys Sarua-Pictet, former stock car racer Troy Adams’ 14-year-old son Truly, and the French trio of Clement Outran (16), Mattheo Dauvergne (14) and Sacha Bouder (17). Outran came fifth in the 2024 IAME Euro and Benelux series on X30 Senior karts.

The RMYTA shootout organised by the Nicolas Todt-led All Road Management firm hands a paid-for 2026 Spanish F4 seat with MP Motorsport to its winner and is open to karters no older than 17.

It had 65 applicants, and six were chosen for the final. The first stage of that is a day spent at Italian driver training firm Formula Medicine’s facilities for “fitness, mental and physical assessments”, then on September 21/22 there is on-track testing at Jerez.

The oldest finalist is 16-year-old Kasper Schormans. The Dutch racer was Rotax Winter Cup, BNL Series and BNL Kick-Off winner and Rotax Max Challenge International Trophy runner-up on Rotax Junior karts, and has since come fourth in the CIK-FIA European championship and fifth in the WSK Final Cup for KZ2 shifter karts.

There are also 15-year-olds Elliot Kaczynski, Iacopo Martinese and Noah Wolfe, and 14-year-olds Borys Lyzen and Aston Sharp.

Martinese was third in the 2024 European championship for OK Junior karts and this year has come fifth in WSK’s Super Master Series at home in Italy and sixth in Champions of the Future in the OK class. Englishman Wolfe was 10th in the latter and 12th in the European championship.

Kaczynski, from Sweden, was runner-up in the South Garda Winter Cup when in junior karting.

Scotland’s Sharp has already done F4 testing, and was 14th in 2024’s CIK-FIA World championship for OK-J karts.

The post Finalists named for FEED Racing France and Richard Mille shootouts appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: KSP Reportages

Arthur Dorison and Rayan Caretti won French Formula 4’s second and third races at Magny-Cours last weekend.

It was not quite a lights-to-flag victory for Dorison in race two, as the reversed-grid poleman lost the lead to Guillaume Bouzar into the first hairpin. He got back ahead a few corners later, and lap one ended with Matteo Giaccardi and Malo Bolliet in third and fourth.

Caretti was eighth after a failed overtaking attempt at turn 14 led to him going off, but he got past Louis Iglesias early in lap two and then overtook Romeo Leurs as Rafael Perard fought Jules Roussel just behind.

Perard got ahead, and brought Andy Consani with him. Roussel fell behind Rintaro Sato on lap three, as Iglesias diced with Leurs for seventh. Roussel was contending with a mechanical issue, which led to him stopping on track and triggering a safety car period on lap four.

On the lap six restart, Perard passed Iglesias but it did not last and they were side-by-side until the final chicane which Iglesias skipped. Perard then locked up into turn five on lap seven and dropped behind Sato and Consani.

Caretti took two attempts to clear Munoz on lap eight, then the safety car appeared again on lap nine due to Sofia Zanfari and Pierre Devos crashing out. Iglesias and Leurs kept on battling, with the latter cutting the final chicane. He ran alongside Inglesias through lap 10, nosing ahead at one point before quickly colliding and breaking his own front-right wheel.

That meant the safety car period extended to the end of lap 12, after which Dorison held on to win while Sato made a late move on Munoz to finish sixth and Bolliet held off Caretti.

Roussel had race three pole, and Perard started with his car turned towards him on the inside of the front row. That worked, as he took the lead into turn one and stayed ahead despte almost going off at turn three.

Cutting the final chicane kept Roussel in second, but on lap two he locked up and went off at turn five which allowed Iglesias and Caretti through. Caretti took second place around turn nine, while Perard was already 3.3 seconds up the road.

The safety car appeared on three due to Pablo Riccobono Bello ploughing into Pierre Devos, but Perard quickly rebuilt his gap on the lap six restart. Bolliet spun Leurs out of sixth on lap seven, copping himself a drive-through penalty, as Roussel attacked Iglesias in multiple places and his rival cut the final chicane to stay ahead.

There was drama at the front on lap eight as Perard went off and Caretti then found himself with a 2.9s lead over Iglesias, who had just held off Roussel again. He finally got a move done by selling a dummy and diving down the inside at turn five on lap nine, with Munoz and Bouzar looking to capitalise. They instead spread out, with Dorison overtaking Bouzar on the penultimate lap for fifth.

Bolliet did not serve his penalty until lap 14 of 16, and his defending set up plenty of pack action until then. Consani was the only driver to successfully pass him, although he briefly lost out to Montego Maassen after making his overtake for seventh.

Results round-up
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Arthur Dorison
2 Guillaume Bouzar +1.059s
3 Matteo Giaccardi +1.900s
4 Malo Bolliet +3.760s
5 Rayan Caretti +4.125s
6 Rintaro Sato +5.228s
7 Alexandre Munoz +5.579s
8 Andy Consani +7.076s
9 Rafael Perard +7.866s
10 Montego Maassen +8.119s
Fastest lap: Bouzar, 1m40.391s

Race 3 (16 laps)
1 Caretti
2 Jules Roussel +1.729s
3 Louis Iglesias +3.271s
4 Munoz +4.848s
5 Dorison +7.933s
6 Bouzar +8.647s
7 Consani +13.472s
8 Maassen +16.255s
9 Giaccardi +16.884s
10 Sato +17.317s
Pole: Roussel, 1m40.161s
FL: Iglesias, 1m40.224s

Championship standings
1 Munoz 177   2 Roussel 154   3 Dorison 117   4 Caretti 106   5 Iglesias 67   6 Perard 66   7 Bolliet 65   8 Bouzar 63   9 Maassen 62   10 Giaccardi 41

The post Arthur Dorison and Rayan Caretti win at Magny-Cours in French F4 appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: KSP Reportages

Rayan Caretti won French Formula 4’s first race of the weekend at Magny-Cours.

Testing kicked off the track action on Thursday. In session one, Arthur Dorison set a 1m42.091s to lead Jules Roussel by 0.063 seconds and Matteo Giaccardi by 0.379s.

Alexandre Munoz lowered the pace to 1m41.979s in session two, leading Guillaume Bouzar by 0.228s and Roussel by 0.288s.

Red flags ended session three early but laptimes still improved, with Romeo Leurs posting a new 1m41.903s benchmark. Rafael Perard trailed by 0.251s in that session, with Caretti 0.744s back and the only other driver within a second of the pace. A second had covered the top 13 in session two.

Malo Bolliet moved to the top in session four, just 0.057s up on Dorison and 0.091s clear of Roussel. Montego Maassen and Leurs completed the top five and a second now split the top 16.

Hugo Herrouin rose to sixth overall by setting a 1m41.211s to top session five, 0.043s ahead of Bouzar who moved up to ninth behind Caretti and Munoz.

Free practice followed on Friday and Leurs set a 1m40.969s to sit half a second clear of the rest of the field. Consani was second, 0.031s ahead of Munoz, and Rintaro Sato was 0.724s behind in fourth. Maassen, Herrouin, Perard and Louis Iglesias were all within a second of Leurs.

Qualifying was in the afternoon, and red flags ended it two minutes early. Iglesias did not need the full session to take race one pole, as he set a 1m39.892s early on that would not be beaten. Caretti and Perard got within 0.176s and 0.195s of him with their next laps, and the top three was set.

Roussel set a 1m40.151s a few minutes later to qualify fourth, and Munoz was the last driver within half a second of Iglesias in fifth, 0.112s behind Leurs.

Drivers’ second-best laptimes set race three’s grid, and Roussel earned pole with a 1m40.161s. Perard, Caretti and Iglesias provisionally fill the next three places.

There was drama on the formation lap for race one as Bolliet warmed up his brakes by stopping entirely and many drivers did the same behind. The opening lap was also action-packed, with Caretti diving past Inglesias at the turn five hairpin.

He did not turn in enough, so when Iglesias steered into the corner he broke off his front wing on Caretti’s car.

Caretti led Perard into lap two, with Munoz third and Leurs taking fourth from Roussel.

Thomas Senecloze crashed out in sector three on lap three, but the safety car did not appear until Lisa Billard stopped. Bolliet had overtaken Roussel in the queue behind Leurs before that, but they swapped places again on the lap eight restart as Angelina Procena crashed out and triggered another safety car period.

On the lap 11 restart, Perard got alongside Caretti at turn four on the outside then switched to the inside to grab the lead into turn five. However he looked nervous once ahead, and bunched everybody up. Roussel got caught out in it and had to pit, as Caretti attempted overtaking at turn 15 two laps in a row. His second go worked, then Munoz hassled Perard to the end while extending his points lead. Bolliet had already re-passed Roussel, and later he got by Leurs for fourth.

Race result (16 laps)

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Photo: FFSA

Jules Roussel escaped contact with Alexandre Munoz to claim a second French Formula 4 win at Spa-Francorchamps in a dramatic race three and close on the championship leader.

Munoz started from pole position ahead of Roussel, who fell to fourth on the initial run to Les Combes behind Louis Iglesias and Montego Maassen. A few corners later there was contact in the chasing pack with Hugo Herrouin running into the back of another car and stopping with damage, necessitating a safety car.

At the restart, Munoz made a good gap while Roussel attacked Igelsias into Les Combes and ended up bouncing across the run-off area, slotting in back behind.

Having lost the place prior to the safety car, Maassen would take third back from Roussel once more and then got a run on Iglesias down the Kemmel straight. With Maassen’s right-hand wheels already on the grass, the pair would make contact that sent Iglesias spinning out of the race. Roussel picked up second while Maassen could continue in third.

Mercedes junior driver Andy Consani was already up to fourth from 13th on the grid, but he then slowed and came to a stop exiting La Source – continuing a challenging run for the rookie, who has scored points just once since his debut pole position and podium at Nogaro. He is not the only manufacturer-backed junior unable to catch a break, with Honda protege Rintaro Sato prevented from taking up his fifth position on the grid by a technical issue.

Roussel soon caught up with Munoz and made a move for the lead on the outside into Les Combes. The pair made contact that sent Roussel bouncing into the air and the run-off area once more, but while Roussel could continue seemingly untroubled, Munoz slowed to retire.

A lap later, Maassen slowed out of second place, the earlier contact with Iglesias seemingly catching up with him, and Roussel now led Arthur Dorison by 3.5 seconds.

Behind, Rayan Caretti and Romeo Leurs were having an almighty battle for third, and were caught by Guillaume Bouzar and Rafael Perard.

After several laps of fighting, Caretti finally seemed to make third place stick and leave Leurs to fend off Bouzar and Perard.

With two minutes left on the clock, Bouzar made a move on Leurs in Eau Rouge and they would make contact – not there or in Raidillon but in the right-hand kink onto the Kemmel straight, just as Perard had ducked out of the slipstream to make it three-wide.

Bouzar was spun across the front of Leurs and tagged Perard, who was sent hard into the barriers on the left-hand-side of the track.

Malo Bolliet managed to avoid the melee, inheriting fourth, but Perard’s damaged car then rolled back across the track in front of Matteo Giaccardi. In Giaccardi’s attempts to avoid he was hit hard from behind by Thomas Senecloze, who was sent sideways into the air and into the barrier on the right-hand side.

With the field slowing under safety car conditions, Roussel took the chequered flag at the end of that lap ahead of Dorison, Bolliet and Leurs.

Race result (11 laps)

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