For this fifth round of the French GT4 championship I take you to Ledenon, a rural town of 1.600 inhabitants, in the south east of France between Nimes and Avignon.
His circuit, created by Jean-Claude and Sylvie Bondurand, with a length of 3.150 km turns in the antihairary direction, opened these tracks in 1973.
It is sometimes called "The toboggan of the Cévennes", Its lowest point is 173.78 meters and the highest is at the end of the straight line with an altitude of 208.20 meters.
Time for sport
French FFSA-GT4 Championship
Qualification practice Driver 1
1’25’’027, new Lédenon circuit record for a GT4 is to be credited to Victor Weyrich. He thus took his second pole position in the Silver Cup, his first overall.
This was followed by Roee Meyuhas (Audi R8 LMS GT4 #14 Saintéloc Racing) the Silver championship leader and Gaël Castelli (Audi R8 LMS GT4 #14 CSA Racing).
In Pro-Am Nicolas Prost (Alpine A110 GT4 #36 – CMR) beat his main rival, Éric Trémoulet (Mercedes-AMG GT4 #64 – Team Jouffruit by Vic'Team) and Valentin Hasse-Clot (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 #13 – Mirage Racing ).
In AM-Cup Gwenaël Delomier (Alpine A110 GT4 #110 – CMR) confirmed his good form with his second pole position in the category this year.
Championship leader Christophe Hamon (Audi R8 LMS GT4 #69 – Team Fullmotorsport) took second place ahead of Kevin Jimenez (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 #72 – GPA Racing),
Qualification practice Driver 2
Victor Weyrich's record only lasted the space of Q1, Erwan Bastard (Audi R8 LMS GT4 #14 Saintéloc Racing) improved by a thousandth in 1'25''026. this time allowed the resident of Saintéloc Racing to position himself in pole position of the general and the Silver category in front of Benjamin Lessennes (BMW M4 GT4 #17 - L'Espace Bienvenue) and Sacha Bottemanne (Audi R8 LMS GT4 #6 - Team Fullmotorsport).
Second overall and first in the Pro-Am category Rudy Servol (Alpine A110 GT4 #36 – CMR) was ahead of Alban Varutti (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport #10 – AVR-Avvatar) sixth in the session and Christopher Campbell (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport #121 - K-Worx) tenth.
The Am-Cup saw Michaël Blanchemain (Audi R8 LMS GT4 #69 – Team Fullmotorsport) take pole position. He was 5 hundredths of a second ahead of Florent Grizaud (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 #72 – GPA Racing) and Christophe Career (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 #161 – AGS Events).
Races
The French FFSA GT Championship includes three categories, which are as many races within the race.
We will deal with the two weekend races by category.
Let's start with the Silver Cup
At the start of Saturday's race, poleman and first leader Victor Weyrich quickly encountered gearbox problems on the Aston Martin exploited by Roee Meyuhas (Audi R8 LMS GT4 #14 – Saintéloc Racing) and Gaël Castelli (Audi R8 LMS GT4 #111 – CSA Racing) huddled in its wake.
The latter was in the lead at the time of the mandatory driver change. Unfortunately, a coolant leak prevented his teammate Alexandre Cougnaud from returning to the track.
Erwan Bastard, who had just taken over from Roee Meyuhas, now in the lead, saw Stéphane Lémeret (Toyota GR Supra GT4 #30 – CMR) come back in his exhausts, starting from 13th place on the grid.
Resisting the pressure Erwan Bastard made no mistakes and the crew of #14 won the Silver Cup for the third time.
The podium was completed by Stéphane Lémeret/Stéphane Tribaudini and Ricardo van der Ende/Benjamin Lessennes (BMW M4 GT4 #17 - L'Espace Bienvenue).
For the Sunday race, the winners of the previous day, who started on pole, were able to stand up to the whole peloton passing the checkered flag in front of all their opponents.
Four successes, seven podiums and ten top 5 in ten races allow the Franco-Israeli/American crew to seal the race for the title.
The Mercedes-AMG GT4s of the Akkodis-ASP team took the other two places on the podium in the Silver Cup with the #88 of Thomas Drouet/Paul Evrard ahead of the #87 of Enzo Joulié/Hugo Chevalier.
Now let’s look at the Pro-Am Cup
The first lap, of this race 1, was fatal to Julien Piguet (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport #10 - Avvatar),third in the provisional standings, involved in a collision with two representatives of the Silver-Cup, Viny Beltramelli (Mercedes-AMG GT4 #31 – CD Sport) and Enzo Joulié (Mercedes-AMG GT4 #87 – Akkodis-ASP), none of the three will restart.
This incident will not benefit the category leaders. Nicolas Prost/ Rudy Servol (Alpine A110 GT4 #36 – CMR), leading the championship, finished his race in the gravel while second Éric Trémoulet/Olivier Jouffret (Mercedes-AMG GT4 #64 – Team Jouffruit by Vic'Team) was subjected to a drive-through following a too short pit stop when changing drivers.
The category victory, third overall, went to Timothé Buret/Christopher Campbell (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport #121 – K-Worx) ahead of two Akkodis-ASP Mercedes-AMG GT4 #16 from Jim Pla/Fabien Barthez and #81 from Simon Gachet/Éric Debard.
In pole position in their category, on this sunny but windy Sunday, the Nicolas Prost/Rudy Servol crew never let up on command.
At the end of a solid race, Fabien Barthez / Jim Pla got the better of Alban Varutti / Julien Piguet at the end of the race.
Penalized on Saturday, Éric Trémoulet/Olivier Jouffret this time retired after a broken belt, the result of gravel entering the engine compartment, it was, for them, a weekend to forget with a fall to 3rd place in the championship, 39 points behind the leaders.
Let’s watch the Am-Cup to finish
Suspense is what characterizes this category. By winning the category during this first race at Lédenon, Laurent Coubard/Jean-Charles Rédélé (Alpine A110 GT4 #76 – Bodemer Auto) carried out an excellent operation in the championship by coming back in the wake of Christophe Hamon/Michaël Blanchemain (Audi R8 LMS GT4 #69 – Team Fullmotorsport) fourth.
The podium is completed by polemen Gwenaël Delomier/David Levy (Alpine A110 GT4 #110 - CMR) resisted the return of Kevin Jimenez/Florent Grizaud (Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 #72 - GPA Racing) despite a spin following a small collision.
First to take the checkered flag in the Am Cup, in race 2, Michael Blanchemain/Christophe Hamon (Audi R8 LMS GT4 #69 – Team Fullmotorsport) saw victory slip away from them after a penalty of 10 seconds following contact with the team's other Audi.
By securing their fourth victory, Laurent Coubard/Jean-Charles Rédélé regained the lead in the Am Cup by one point.
Far behind the two title contenders, Kevin Jimenez/Florent Grizaud climbed the podium for the 6th time, thus consolidating their provisional third place in the championship.
In conclusion, if the title is folded in the Silver Cup, the suspense remains in the Pro-Am and Am Cup before the season finale, scheduled for the Circuit Paul Ricard from October 14 to 16.
French FFSA TC Championship
Race 1
1 #81 Ventaja Stéphane Team Clairet Sport Peugeot 308 RC
2 #18 Leandri Jean-Mathieu VSF Sports - Amplitude automobile BMW M2 CS Racing
3 #41 Eveillard / Giorza VSF Sports - Amplitude automobile BMW M2 CS Racing
Race 2
1 #12 Bouteiller Vincent JSB Compétition Peugeot 308 RC
2 #81 Ventaja Stéphane Team Clairet Sport Peugeot 308 RC
3 #19 Thome Sebastien Team Clairet Sport Peugeot 308 RC
Race 3
1 #12 Bouteiller Vincent JSB Compétition Peugeot 308 RC
2 #77 Jacob-Cano Julien Terre & Mer Performance by JSB Peugeot 308 RC
3 #81 Ventaja Stéphane Team Clairet Sport Peugeot 308 RC
Trophée Mitjet 2L France
Final Classification
Race 1 Driver A
1 #79 Favre Romain VPS Racing
2 #24 Seveau Sebastien Generation Stunt
3 #27 Karbid Younes K-WORX
Race 2 Driver B
1 #24 Jankavicius Povilas Generation Stunt
2 #137 Dayraut Xavier DS Event
3 #79 Favre Romain VPS Racing
Race 3 Driver A
1 #99 Salomone Matteo MV2S Racing
2 #137 Dayraut Xavier DS Event
3 #76 Fassard Marius VPS Racing
Race 4 Driver B
1 #27 Karbid Younes K-WORX
2 #139 Deldossi Andréa DS Event
3 #137 Dayraut Xavier DS Event
Legends Cars Cup
Race 1 Driver A
1 #44 Detry Mathieu
2 #46 Plantier Jérôme
3 #27 Sonntag Maxime
Race 2 Driver B
1 #44 de Saeger David
2 #54 Smits Gilles
3 #60 Lieutenant Maxime
Race 3 Driver A&B
1 #44 Detry Mathieu /de Saeger David
2 #54 Smits Gilles
3 #27 Sonntag Maxime
Championnat de France F4
Race 1
1 #68 Barter Hugh
2 #10 Giusti Alessandro
3 #33 Arao Souta
Race 2
1 #11 Provost Pierre-Alexandre
2 #68 Barter Hugh
3 #46 Vayron Elliott
Race 3
1 #10 Giusti Alessandro
2 #68 Barter Hugh
3 #7 Cabanelas Dario
Team les Galapiats
Team les Galapiats is an association of more than 40 years old that welcomes children from 10 to 16 years old who wish to satisfy their passion for the automobile by building, then learning to drive, models inspired by racing cars.
The Galapiats team is regularly present at major motor sport events.
If the planets line up correctly, I’ll be there to bring you the end of the 2022 FFSA-GT4 championship.
Based on FFSA GT French Championship press report