Valentin Moineault won the first race at the Magny-Cours Circuit to ensure he starts the second half of the season as he finished the first. The young French driver extends his lead in the championship with his fourth win of the year.
Moineault had set the fastest time at the end of qualifying to ensure that he was in the best position to start race one with his closest championship rival, Sacha Fenestraz, narrowly behind him. The points leader made the best start and defended his lead for much of the race.
His gap at the front fluctuated as time went past, but it was the front three who had broken away by the end of the race. Fenestraz meanwhile spent the race battling with third placed Gabriel Aubry. It had been Aubry who’d make the best start, but the battle between the two drivers allowed none of them to challenge Moineault directly for this win.
Behind the podium finishers was another close battle for fourth lead by Kami Laliberte. After his forays into ADAC Formula 4 a few weeks ago, the Canadian driver found himself dropping off the pace of the front three for most of the race. The result marks his best finish of the season.
After an incident at the start, Julian Darras was forced to pit and would later retire after running a lap down. This allowed Reuben Kressner into fifth with the Swedish driver being pushed on in the later stages by Simo Laaksonen. Having started in eighth, he quickly moved up to sixth and would set a few fastest laps as he challenged for higher positions towards the race conclusion.
Rounding out the top eight was Axel Matus and Louis Gachot. It had been good race for Matus, who’d started thirteenth after a poor qualifying, but made the most of the first lap carnage to catch up with Darras in the championship.
