Hugh Barter took a dominant lights-to-flag victory in Race 1 at Nogaro ahead of the Red Bull supported driver Souta Arao.
Barter made a superb start from pole position keeping the lead into Turn 1 as Frenchman Elliott Vayron leapfrogged his compatriot Pierre-Alexandre Provost to snatch P3.
Arao opted to use the two new tyres and challenged for the lead in the opening stages before his Pirelli rubber lost the peak of their grip.
Barter described his race as challenging and said: “The race was definitely on the challenging side towards the start since Souta had the new tyre so I was trying to manage him as well as my tyre.
As Souta’s tyres wore down throughout the race Barter was able to control the race with slightly more breathing space as they pulled away from Vayron in P3. Barter said: “And then once the benefit of the new tyres started to wear off mid race it became a bit easier, and I was able to manage the last three laps like a couple of seconds per lap, so it was a good race.”
Provost finished in fourth place ahead of his fellow Frenchman Enzo Geraci who also used the new tyres in the first race of the weekend.
The Red Bull Junior Team member Yuto Nomura drove to P7 behind Alessandro Giusti after making up two places with a superb start.
The top ten was rounded out by Enzo Peugeot, Lorens Lecertua and Edgar Pierre who is making his debut in French F4 this weekend.
Race 2 will commence on Sunday afternoon with Barter starting in P10 on the reverse grid with Enzo Peugeot on pole position and the Japanese driver Nomura second on the grid.
*Image credits: FFSport Auto
