Frenchman Bryan Elpitiya claimed his maiden French F4 victory in race two of the weekend around the Bugatti layout of the Le Mans track. He won by 2.486s from Anglo-Swiss driver Felix Hirsiger, while race one winner Joseph Mawson claimed the third step on the podium after a good fight through from tenth on the grid.
After race one was held in challenging wet conditions, the track was dry for race two, and was throughout despite the skies looking threatening all race long. Elpitiya led away from his reverse-grid pole from Swede Reuben Kressner and Hirsiger. The first lap saw a big crash for Valentin Moineault, the young French driver luckily walking away from his damaged machine, but he is a doubt for the start of race three.
Hirsiger grabbed second from Kressner who would slip to seventh by the end of the race, while Mawson climbed to third, overtaking Swiss driver Paul Hokfelt Jr on the final lap for the podium. Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci finished fifth, ahead of another Frenchman Valentin Hasse-Clot, Kressner, Finn Simo Laaksonen, and Russians Vladimir Atoev and Denis Bulatov.
Both Frenchman Erwan Jule and Dane Lasse Sorensen were issued with drive-through penalties for not obeying track limits during the race despite numerous warnings, which eliminated them from the fight for points.
“As I had decided beforehand I pushed very hard in the first seven laps to try and open up a gap, which I managed to do,” said race winner Elpitiya. “I’m really delighted to have won.”
Le Mans Race 2 Result (Top 10)
POS | DRIVER | NAT | TIME |
1 | Bryan Elpitiya | FRA | 20m48.347s |
2 | Felix Hirsiger | GBR | +2.486s |
3 | Joseph Mawson | AUS | +5.520s |
4 | Paul Hokfelt Jr | SWI | +6.292s |
5 | Dorian Boccolacci | FRA | +14.533s |
6 | Valentin Hasse-Clot | FRA | +15.198s |
7 | Reuben Kressner | SWE | +15.495s |
8 | Simo Laaksonen | FIN | +16.680s |
9 | Vladimir Atoev | RUS | +17.093s |
10 | Denis Bulatov | RUS | +19.493s |