FRENCH F4 CHAMPIONSHIP - SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS - PRESENTATION

25/07 - The Belgian event everyone is waiting for!

Before the traditional holiday break, the academicians will be visiting the legendary track of Spa-Francorchamps where they will be performing before the ‘Total 24 Hours of Spa’. Twenty drivers will be fighting over victory as Jonas Ramanauskas, coming from Lithuania, will be joining the F4 French Championship group for the occasion. In this Belgian stage, will Matthieu Vaxivière be able to maintain his top position and therefore become the summer’s champion?

…This will not be an easy task as his advance on Andréa Pizzitola is very short – only two small points. No doubt that he will have at heart to win in order to make a real difference in the classification. Andréa Pizzitola will definitely double his efforts to counterblast his plans. He has already been able to thwart his plans twice and besides Pau, he stepped onto all podiums!

Pierre Sancinéna, who has 15 points delay on the leader, also counts two victories this season. Spa-Francorchamps will give him one advantage: he knows this track layout very well as he is one of those who is re-doing another year with Auto Sport Academy. However, this is easier said than done and he knows it – he has already had to abandon twice, like in Val de Vienne where he was not even able to finish one single lap. Pocketing the same victories as the leader (3) or doing even better will also be his aim.

Very first winner of the season, Cyril Raymond will have at heart to stop Matthieu’s progression. Thanks to his good results throughout the last event (with one podium), he maintains his rank but in Belgium he will want to make the groups’ hierarchy stumble. One thing is certain, the races competed this weekend will be decisive in the running title of the 2011 Champion. Even more so that other drivers are also getting better and better and could quite legitimately go for victory!

Tristan Papavoine, for example, also re-doing another year with Auto Sport Academy and very performing on the Belgian track last year. After 3 blank races at the beginning of the season, the young driver created the surprise in the general classification by pocketing his very first podium in motorsport and no less than 20 points over the weekend in Val de Vienne! He is only 1 point away from the Top Five, from Alexandre Mantovani, another driver repeating a year. Alexandre Mantovani left the Val de Vienne track empty-handed. After having climbed onto the podium twice this season, he hopes to step onto the highest one this time and forget the misfortunes of the last meeting. He also is part of those who could surprise the group.

But, for this start of the second part of the season, the foreign drivers wish to fend off their French team-mates. The better placed are without doubt the Finn Patrick Kujala, 7th with 5 points delay on Tristan Papavoine and the Spaniard Victor Colomé, 9th with 21 points delay. The Catalane is two points behind Aurélien Panis and only one point away from Pierre Gasly. Both got their very first podium in car-racing in the streets of Pau and victory is also within arm-reach for them. In any case, they will all have to pocket big points if they don’t want to figure at the bottom of the list.

Four drivers are wrestling to be in the Top Ten – the Spaniard Francisco-Javier Suárez, the Andorran Alex Loan Ventura, Jordan Perroy, the Belgian Kévin Balthazar – and all of them are holding within only five units ! Face to his public, the latter driver will certainly want to make the difference. As far as the rest of the group is concerned, they will have at heart to pocket a few points in order to increase their counter of points such as the Polish driver Tomasz Krzeminski, but also to make the difference just like the Indian Parth Ghorpade and Paul Petit who totalize 6 points, won in Pau for the first and at the Val de Vienne for the second. Finally, for the only girl of the promotion, Marie Baus-Coppens and the youngest of the group, the German Alex Boquoi, they will try to pocket their first points.

On the occasion of this stage in Belgium, Jonas Ramanauskas (19 years old) has decided to confront the competitors of the F4 French Championship. A daring decision but that we can easily understand. After a few years in go-kart, this Lithuanian driver (the very first for the Federal training centre who is also welcoming for the first time drivers coming from Andorra, Poland and India!) evolved for three years in auto-cross and rally-cross and carried out last year some tests in British Formula Ford.

Thursday 28th July: collective tests at 12.55 pm >>> Friday 29th July: qualifying session at 9.05 am and race 1 at 2.25 pm >>> Saturday 30th July: race 2 at 9.55 am >>> Live Timing : http://www.sportresult.com/car-races/