Qualifying for the opening round of the 2025 E4 Championship took place this morning at the Paul Ricard Circuit in Le Castellet, France. The battle for the Formula 4 series promoted by ACI Sport and WSK Promotion, now in its third edition with three fiercely contested rounds, kicked off in earnest. On the iconic French track, which has hosted the Formula 1 Grand Prix on several occasions, 29 cars took to the circuit for two 15-minute sessions to fight for grid positions ahead of the weekend’s three races.
The track was damp following a shower shortly before the start, though still dry enough not to pose a major issue. The real challenge came from gusty winds, which made aerodynamic management trickier than usual. At the end of both sessions, Kean Nakamura-Berta of Prema Racing claimed pole position for both Race 1 and Race 2. Pole for Race 3, awarded based on the second-best lap time across both sessions, went to Gabriel Gomez of US Racing.
The first session came alive quickly: Dutch driver Reno Francot of PHM Racing was one of the early contenders, setting the benchmark pace. He was followed by Alex Powell of R-ace GP, a Mercedes junior, who took over at the top. The decisive moment came at the chequered flag: Sebastian Wheldon of Prema Racing, supported by Andretti Global, held P1, but in the final seconds Kean Nakamura-Berta, who had been just 0.023s behind, snatched pole with a lap of 2’06.128. Wheldon ended up second, 0.111s adrift. Third was Gabriel Gomez of US Racing, 0.219s off the pace. With a gap of 0.409s, Oleksandr Bondarev of Prema Racing secured fourth overall and was the fastest rookie. Kabir Anurag of US Racing, representing the Alpine Academy, took fifth with a gap of 0.578s. Enea Frey of Jenzer Motorsport was sixth, 0.648s off the top. Reno Francot finished seventh at 0.668, ahead of Maksimilian Popov of Van Amersfoort Racing at 0.676. Completing the top ten were Alex Powell of R-ace GP at 0.721 and Andrija Kostic of US Racing at 0.
756.
Following a 10-minute break in the pit lane, as per usual procedures, the drivers returned to the track for the second session. Times remained high until the closing minutes, largely due to drivers being reluctant to offer slipstreams. With under five minutes to go, Sebastian Wheldon briefly took P1, but it was again Kean Nakamura-Berta who rose to the top with a 2’05.817. Reno Francot ended the session second, just 0.055s behind, closely followed by Gabriel Gomez at 0.057s. All three were separated by less than a tenth. Wheldon finished fourth at 0.176, followed by Oleksandr Bondarev, once again the fastest rookie, at 0.268. Maksimilian Popov was sixth at 0.322, ahead of Kabir Anurag at 0.364. Alex Powell was eighth at 0.404, followed by Zenrui Chi of Prema Racing at 0.487 and Enea Frey at 0.547.
Pole position for Race 3 was awarded to Gabriel Gomez thanks to his second-best time of 2’05.875, just one-thousandth of a second slower than his fastest lap in Q2. He will be joined on the front row by Sebastian Wheldon, who was second fastest at 0.241. Kean Nakamura-Berta will start third at 0.246, followed by Maksimilian Popov at 0.271. Once again leading the rookies, Oleksandr Bondarev will line up fifth at 0.294, alongside Alex Powell, sixth at 0.409. Seventh on the grid will be Reno Francot at 0.440, followed by Zenrui Chi at 0.506, Kabir Anurag at 0.558, and Enea Frey at 0.574.
Kean Nakamura-Berta: “The track was very different from yesterday; the rain brought in an element of uncertainty. Overall, I think we had a good qualifying. It’s always very close here, I think the top three were within a tenth. Prema did a fantastic job giving me a great car this morning. Now we have Race 1 ahead of us, and starting at the front gives us a chance to control things. We’ll see how it goes, we’ve started well and now need to keep this momentum through all three races.”
Gabriel Gomez: “It was a really tricky qualifying. In Q1, we ran alone without the slipstream. In Q2 our pace was strong on every lap, but everyone was waiting for the slipstream because of the strong wind. That made things more complicated. I got caught in traffic twice and without that, I think we could’ve taken pole in Q2 because our pace was really strong. In the end, we posted two identical laps, and that gave us pole for Race 3. The pace has been strong all weekend, so I just have to thank the whole team for the great job they’ve done with the car.”
Race 1 will get underway today, Saturday 19 July, at 4:30PM.
On Sunday 20 July, Race 2 is scheduled for 11:00AM, and Race 3 for 5:25PM.
All races will run for 30 minutes plus one lap and will be broadcast live on ACI Sport TV (channel 228 on Sky and channel 52 on Tivůsat), as well as streamed live on live.acisport.it and the official ACI Sport TV Facebook and YouTube channels. English commentary will be available internationally on E4 Championship platforms and official social media accounts.