Rd1 Paul Ricard, Race 1 Report (video)

Race 1 of round one of 2021 Italian Formula 4 Championship powered by Abarth is done and dusted and it was a positive start for Georgis Markogiannis! The Greek Driver who started the race from 30th on the grid, gained 6 places during the incident-free race at Paul Ricard and saw the chequered flag 24th out of 37 drivers.

Round 1, Paul Ricard
Race 1
Track Temperature: 28
Air Temperature: 15
Grid Position: 30
Finish: 24
Best Lap (10): 2:06.760
Highest Top Speed of the race at 227.3 km/h

How Georgis’ race unfolded
Minutes before the start of the race, it started spitting rain above Le Castellet. All cars were fitted with slick tires so the race control decided a Safety Car start. The rain didn’t intensify, so after a couple of laps, SC returned to the pits and the action on track begun.

Georgis was 30th on the grid and gained a position when Lorenzo Patrese pitted on lap 4. By then, he was faster than teammate Nicolas Baptiste and started closing in. They both benefited when Hamda Al Qubaisi spined and on lap 7, the Greek Driver overtook his teammate at CRAM.

On lap 12, he also gained a place against Pietro Armanni and was chasing down another teammate, Zanfari Suleiman. Another overtake promoted the 16-year-old to 25th position but his rise in the board wasn’t over. On the penultimate lap, Sebastian Montoya pitted, with Georgis now 24th.

A late Safety Car period meant that action was basically done, with cars sprinting down Paul Ricard’s start-finish straight. The Greek was the 9th best placed rookie (among 17) and the highest placed CRAM Motorsport driver.

The race was won by Russian driver of Prema Powerteam, Kirill Smal. The German Tim Tramnitz of US Racing and the British Oliver Bearman of Van Amersfoort Racing completed the Top-3.

What Georgis Said
«It started drizzling ten minutes before the start of the race, which complicated things since we didn’t know if it was going to be a wet or dry race. The start was behind the Safety Car but the rain stopped. During the first laps it was difficult to get my tires at the optimum temperature. When I managed to do that, I was quick, I started gaining places and I had some nice battles on track. Even though I am not happy with the 24th place, it is a step forward given my bad grid position».

What’s up next
Race 2 takes place on Sunday, starts at 11.40 and Georgis will line up 32nd on the grid. You can watch the race LIVE here.

Race 3 takes place again on Sunday, starts at 17.10 and Georgis will line up 30th on the grid (the starting grid of the 3rd Race is based on the second best time reached by each driver in any of the two rounds of qualifying). You can watch the race LIVE here.

Relive Race 1 at Paul Ricard: