On the Paul Armagnac Nogaro circuit ASA trainee Lasse Sorensen from Denmark racked up three wins in three races leaving his rivals no chance. Frenchman Dorian Boccolacci, Anglo-Swiss Félix Hirsiger and another Frenchman Valentin Hasse Clot made the best of the situation and joined the brilliant Dane on the podium. The drivers will join battle again on the Jerez circuit in Spain on 17 – 19 October in the final round of the World Series by Renault.
None of his rivals was able to prevent Sorensen from setting pole position for races 1 and 3 as he started his domination of the fifth round of the 2014 French F4 Championship.
In the first race on Saturday the championship leaders lined up on the grid led by Sorensen and Boccolacci on the front row. The Dane shot to the front when the lights went out and pulled away from his pursuers. Behind, there were no-holds-barred scraps going on among the top 10. Australian Joseph Mawson got past Paul Hokfelt Jr from Switzerland and Russian driver Vladimir Atoev soon did the same. Boccolacci was under attack from Hirsiger who was himself under pressure from Mexican Patricio O’Ward. Battling for the points that went with fifth place were Hasse Clot, Russian Denis Bulatov and Valentin Moineault from France. Max Defourny from Belgium fought his way up to 10th place clinching pole for race 2. Sorensen went on to win the weekend’s first race in the Gers hands down, and tightened his stranglehold on the title. Into second and third came Boccolacci and Hirsiger.
The start of heat 2 took place without incident in blazing sunlight. Defourny went into a lead he was determined to keep closely followed by Mawson and Atoev. The first few hundred metres proved decisive for the front-runners and Bulatov snatched fourth place from Moineault. When the Australian went off taking Bulatov with him the Frenchman got back into his original place before he was passed by Hasse Clot. Sorensen made a stunning comeback and he was soon up into fourth spot. Atoev in second place upped the pace and with two laps to go he tried to overtake Defourny and the two cars collided leading to the Belgian’s retirement. Sorensen snatched second spot from Hirsiger and latched on to Atoev’s gearbox. The Russian took the chequered flag but his joy was short-lived as he was given a time penalty because of the collision with Defourny. Thus, Sorensen inherited victory with Hirsiger and Hasse Clot in second and third places.
In the last race on Sunday the drivers having set the quickest times in qualifying were on the front rows on the grid with Sorensen on pole for the second time. When the race got under way Bryan Elpitiya was handed a drive-through penalty for jumping the start and Joao Carvalho from Portugal went off dropping him to the back of the field. Sorensen again took the lead from Boccolacci with Hirsiger in third place followed by Atoev, O’Ward, Hasse Clot, Mawson and Bulatov in eighth. These six drivers were locked in a ding-dong battle for third. Sorensen and Boccolacci opened up a big lead (almost the length of the main straight) over their pursuers, and despite the attacks of the Frenchman, who looked the faster of the two, the young Danish driver clinched his third victory of the weekend from Boccolacci who had tried to snatch first place from him throughout the 14-lap race. Hirsiger held on to third after fending off Atoev and O’Ward.
After the fifth round Sorensen has accentuated his domination with a total of 274 points. Hirsiger is still in second place with 205 points in front of Boccolacci with 192 points, Mawson lies fourth with 142 and Bulatov fifth with 122 points. The last two rounds of the championship look like being the theatre of an all-out scrap between these five drivers for the 2014 French F4 title.
Overall General Classification of the French F4 Championship after Nogaro (5/7) :
1 L. Sorensen, 274 pts / 2. F.Hirsiger, 205 pts / 3. D. Boccolacci, 192 pts / 4. J. Mawson, 142 pts / 5. D. Bulatov, 122 pts / 6. V. Hasse Clot, 82 pts / 7. P. O’Ward, 73 pts / 8. P. Hokfelt Jr, 71 pts / 9. V. Moineault, 67 pts / 10. A. Richard, 64 pts / etc…
– 2 Pole Positions for Sorensen (Races 1 and 3) and 1 for Defourny (Race 2)
– 3 victories for Sorensen
– 2 fastest laps for Sorensen and 1 for Boccolacci
– 28 laps in the lead for Sorensen, 11 for Defourny and 3 for Atoev
Info Auto Sport Academy / © Photo KSP