Chinese master Ye Yifei continued his domination as he won by 8.7 seconds in the third race at Ledenon. The 15-year-old showed no sign of weakness as he ended the French F4 event with fastest lap and pole for the final race, as he looks for his second clean sweep from three rounds.
Starting from the front was a big advantage for Ye, however, after Saturday, he was aware how tenuously he could lose the lead if he didn’t get a strong start. Luckily for the Chinese driver, he’d learnt his lesson, making sure to leave Jean-Baptise Mela in disbelief. The top four kept their positions as the field bunched up behind.
Ye was quick to pull out a 3.2 second gap in the first three laps, extending it as the race went on. He proved to be the only driver capable of setting a lap times within the 1min 25s, as second place Mela found himself under pressure from Gilles Magnus.
Michael Benyahia had been one of the big gainers off the start line and was piling pressure on Pierre-Alexandre Jean as the pair joined battle for second. A queue quickly formed behind Mela as the quartet grew ever more distant of the #20 at the front of the field.
Having disposed of Tristan Charpentier at the start. Spanish driver Javier Cobian finally found his way past Hugo Chevalier for eighth. He didn’t stop there though, a few laps later Cobian managed to get the best of Jose Sierra to eventually finish seventh.
Despite his progress though, no-one could get past Theo Coicurd. The 16-year-old had had the best start out of the whole grid, working his way into sixth. Progress was slow though and he fell back from the battle ahead, holding up Sierra in the early stages.
In the end, Ye crossed the line with an incredible 8.7 second gap to Mela, as Magnus once again completed the podium. The pair was closely followed by Jean and Benyahia. Behind them, Coicurd lead home a train of cars which included Cobian, Sierra and Marvin Klein.
Klein and tenth place Aleks Karkosik were gifted points positions after Chevalier and Charpentier were forced off the track with the latter choosing to pit as to give the car a once over. The final race will start 13:50 local time.
