French F4: Angélina Proenca gains nine positions in safety-car filled season-opener, as Lisa Billard comes close to a top-10 finish
- MARCO ALBERTINI
- 12 hours ago
- 3 min read
In the opening round of the 2025 French F4 season, Iron Dames-supported driver Lisa Billard ran strongly and came close to scoring points before a late-race crash took her out of contention. Annabelle Brian finished 16th on a very encouraging single-seater debut, three places ahead of Angélina Proenca who gained nine positions in the season opener.
In the opening round of the 2025 French F4 season, Iron Dames-supported driver Lisa Billard ran strongly and agonizingly came close to scoring points before a late-race crash took her out of contention.
Having qualified a promising 10th for race one, Billard dropped back at the start but ran close to the top 10 before contact with Rintaro Sato caused the 15-year-old to retire. Elsewhere in the field, Annabelle Brian finished 16th on her single-seater debut, three places ahead of Angélina Proenca. Behind them, Sofia Zanfari and Heloise Goldberg, both on their debut, finished 21st and 23rd respectively.
As the event is part of the Easter Cup, on-track action started on Friday, instead of the usual Thursday, with five private testing sessions taking place ahead of the sole free practice session on Saturday. The early part of the weekend was promising for Lisa Billard as she set the second-best time in the first session and remained close to the top ten over the course of the rest of the day.
Netherlands’ Annabelle Brian and France’s Angélina Proenca also showed speed early on, staying near the top 20 as they closed in on Billard towards the end of Friday.
On Saturday, free practice and the only qualifying session ensued, both held in wet conditions.
In the former, Billard was the best of the six young females, albeit in a lowly 20th place ahead of Angélina Proenca, who had the 22nd best time in the session. Qualifying was a better story for Billard as she set the 10th fastest time but would start ninth as Rintaro Sato was later excluded from qualifying.
Annabelle Brian, who showed promising pace earlier in the weekend qualified 20th, while Jade Jacquet qualified 24th, ahead of Sofia Zanfari in 27th, Angélina Proenca in 28th and Heloise Goldberg in 30th.
In the race, Billard had a slow getaway and fell to 14th at the end of the opening lap while Annabelle Brian jumped up to 19th just as the safety car was called due to a crash between Hugo Herrouin and Paul Roques that took both drivers out of the race. Heloise Goldberg was also involved in the accident but was able to continue without major damage to her car.
The race resumed on lap four and Billard immediately gained two positions as Pablo Riccobono Bello and Niccolo Pirri both collided at turn 11, causing the safety car to come out on track for the second time. However, Billard returned those two places during the safety car and thus returned to 14th before the restart.
Under safety car conditions, Leandre Carvalho pitted to repair damage sustained earlier, promoting both Sofia Zanfari and Heloise Goldberg up a place as the restart commenced.
On the restart, Billard moved up to 13th as Guillaume Bouzar entered the pits. Shortly after, Pirri went off at turn 11 and retired from the race, causing the safety car to come out a third time.
At the end of lap ten, green flag racing resumed with seven minutes left on the clock. Morocco’s Sofia Zanfari and France’s Jade Jacquet began immediately exchanging positions for a couple of laps as Sasha Milojkovic passed Annabelle Brian for 17th.
Zanfari and Jacquet were passed by Angélina Proenca shortly after, as the latter was charging through the field after starting near the back and had gained seven positions in the first 20 minutes of the race.
With a few laps remaining, Rintaro Sato, who was also making a comeback, collided with Lisa Billard at turn 11, putting both drivers out of the race and ending the opening race of the weekend under safety car conditions.
As the checkered flag waved, Alexandre Munoz won race one from Rafael Pérard and Andy Consani. Annabelle Brian was the highest finishing female driver in 16th, followed by Angélina Proenca in 19th, Sofia Zanfari in 21st and Heloise Goldberg in 23rd.
Race two is set to commence at 16:20 local time and its starting grid will be based off qualifying’s results with the top eight being reversed. From 19th, Angélina Proenca looks to continue her charge through the field, while Lisa Billard, who will start from the front row in second.