French F4: Lisa Billard recovers to P17 to secure top female, Brian continues solid single seater debut in Nogaro second race

French F4's second race at Nogaro saw the six female drivers dealing with heavy rain that resulted in a red flag; Despite an off track while in third, Lisa Billard recovered to finish as top female in P17 ahead of standout rookie Annabelle Brian, again showing potential in the challenging conditions.

Photo credits: FFSA

A few hours after the season opener at Circuit Paul Armagnac in Nogaro, French Formula 4 hosted its second race of the weekend as part of the traditional Easter Cup that opens the FFSA season.

A historic milestone was reached with six female drivers on a grid of over 30 entries—the most in French F4 history—as the French federation continues its push for greater female representation in both karting and junior single-seaters through dedicated programs.

Among the six women, Iron Dame Lisa Billard—who contested a part-time campaign in 2024 as a guest entry—is now competing in her first full season and had already shown great pace earlier in the weekend.

The young French driver had narrowly missed out on her first top 10 finish in Race 1 after being taken out of contention by contact from another competitor, despite a strong performance. Dutch rookie Annabelle Brian, making her single-seater debut after stepping up from karting, delivered a remarkable drive to finish as the top female driver in P16 in extremely challenging weather conditions. There were encouraging signs also from the other female rookies: Angelina Proenca recovered nine places to finish in the top 20, ahead of Sofia Zanfari, Jade Jacquet, and Heloise Goldberg.

The second race featured a reverse-grid format, which placed Lisa Billard on the front row in second position—another opportunity to score the points her pace had deserved. Annabelle Brian would again aim to climb the field from P20, ahead of Jade Jacquet in P24, Sofia Zanfari in P27, Angelina Proenca in P29, and Heloise Goldberg in P30.

Rain continued to fall, making conditions nearly undrivable and forcing the race to start behind the safety car. Three cars went off onto the grass at the start, but Billard managed to hold on to second place. Rintaro Sato pitted and retired—and was just the first among many to run into trouble once the race went green. Leandre Carvalho went off at Turn 7, bringing out the safety car, which quickly escalated into a red flag as multiple drivers ended up in the gravel. Among them were Billard, Roques, Consani, and Pirri, the latter with a broken front wing.

Roques had hit Romeo Leurs, who eventually retired due to a broken rear-left suspension. Lisa Billard went off trying to avoid the incident and had to be recovered from the gravel during the red flag but was able to continue.

At the restart, Annabelle Brian was up to P14, followed by Jacquet in P18, Zanfari in P20, Proenca in P21, Goldberg in P23, and Billard in P25.

Dorison retained the lead as Jules Roussel passed Alexandre Munoz for fourth. Consani, who had started at the back, climbed to P19 after overtaking five cars in a single lap. A lap later, Roussel passed Matteo Giaccardi for third. Shortly after, Consani overtook Annabelle Brian for P13, while Jacquet lost P18 to Sasha Milojkovic. Brian however held off a challenge from Hugo Herrouin, while Proenca passed Zanfari for P20.

A brief yellow was deployed at Turn 13 when Hugo Martiniello went off. Jason Shen also went off track, allowing Brian to move back up into P13. Nicolas Pasquier spun and retired, but the race remained green.

Consistently the top-running female driver, Brian had an off-track moment and dropped to P19 but remained in contention for the top female classification. Jacquet, meanwhile, reclaimed P18.

Jason Shen was passed by both Jacquet and Brian; in the closing stages, Annabelle also passed Jade Jacquet once again.

Meanwhile, Lisa Billard mounted a strong recovery from the back of the field, making her way back into the top 20 after dropping to last.

Dorison went on to win, with Roussel finishing P2 and Giaccardi P3. Billard completed a remarkable recovery drive to finish P17, taking the top spot among the female drivers—just ahead of Annabelle Brian, who had been running close to the top 10 in another impressive performance in tricky conditions after topping the female classification in Race 1.

Jade Jacquet finished P19, Sofia Zanfari crossed the line in P21, ahead of Angelina Proenca in P22 and Heloise Goldberg in P23.

The third and final race of the weekend is scheduled for Monday, in keeping with Easter weekend tradition at Circuit Paul Armagnac in Nogaro.

Additional reporting: Marco Albertini