Home Formula 4French F4 Giuliano Alesi on pole for single-seater debut

Giuliano Alesi on pole for single-seater debut

by Gruz David
Photo: Dominique Breugnot / Team DBC Pictures

Photo: Dominique Breugnot / Team DBC Pictures

Giuliano Alesi, son of F1 race winner Jean, has taken double pole of the French F4 season opener at Ledenon.

The car racing novice stormed to the top halfway through the qualifying session and then improved several times to maintain his lead.

The only driver to dip into 1:34s, he enjoyed some luck at the end as qualifying was red-flagged with three minutes to spare, leaving his opponents with no chance to retaliate.

Another French karting graduate Julien Andlauer ended up second, ending up just a tenth off the benchmark time.

Canadian Kami Laliberte and Frenchman Julien Darras also shined in their first qualifying session in single-seaters as they finished third and fourth fastest respectively.

Nerses Isaakyan took fifth ahead of top sophomore Valentin Moineault, who?was the early leader of the session but eventually had to do with sixth.

Swede Reuben Kressner and Russian Nikita Troitskiy were seventh and eighth respectively, with the top ten rounded out by Mexican Axel Matus and French karting star Gabriel Aubry.

With the best times of the session making up the grid for race three, race one’s starting order is instead determined by second-best laps.

That bumps Laliberte up to second for his single-seater debut, while Moineault and Darras occupy row two.

Kressner moves to fifth, leading Isaakyan and Matus, with Andlauer all the way down in eighth. Alexey Korneev and Aubry will start the opener from row five.

Qualifying results
Race 1 Race 3
Pos. Driver Time Pos. Driver Time
1 Giuliano Alesi 1:33.944 1 Giuliano Alesi 1:33.909
2 Kami Laliberte 1:34.292 2 Julien Andlauer 1:34.028
3 Valentin Moineault 1:34.463 3 Kami Laliberte 1:34.144
4 Julien Darras 1:34.584 4 Julien Darras 1:34.145
5 Reuben Kressner 1:34.680 5 Nerses Isaakyan 1:34.178
6 Nerses Isaakyan 1:34.790 6 Valentin Moineault 1:34.232
7 Axel Matus 1:34.834 7 Reuben Kressner 1:34.519
8 Julien Andlauer 1:35.021 8 Nikita Troitskiy 1:34.629
9 Alexey Korneev 1:35.119 9 Axel Matus 1:34.710
10 Gabriel Aubry 1:35.132 10 Gabriel Aubry 1:34.797
11 Nikita Troitskiy 1:35.251 11 Louis Gachot 1:34.995
12 Louis Gachot 1:35.306 12 Alexey Korneev 1:35.021
13 Simo Laaksonen 1:35.416 13 Simo Laaksonen 1:35.339
14 Ye Yifei 1:36.010 14 Ye Yifei 1:35.778
15 Sacha Fenestraz 1:36.700 15 Sacha Fenestraz 1:36.230
16 Michael Benyahia 1:36.881 16 Michael Benyahia 1:36.752
17 Jose Sierra 1:38.473 17 Jose Sierra 1:37.203
18 Hugo Sugnot-Darniche 1:38.928 18 Hugo Sugnot-Darniche 1:37.806
19 Theophile Senegas 1:39.730 19 Theophile Senegas 1:39.474