Ninth podium for Taito Kato in the French F4 Championship
French F4 Round 5 Magny-Cours took place on 24-25 August. Taito Kato is a member of Honda’s young driver development programme ‘Honda Formula Dream Project (HFDP)’ compete in 2024 French F4 championship.
French F4 normally consists of 3 races per 1 event. The starting grid for Race 1 is determined by qualifying, the starting grid for Race 2 is determined by reversing the top 10 qualifiers, and the starting grid for Race 3 is determined by the second-best qualifying time.
The Magny-Cours event, where the fifth of the seven 2024 rounds was contested.
When the qualifying session started, ambient temperature was higher than practice session and he had to deal with changing conditions.
Taito finished 2nd in Free Practice on Friday morning, which gave him confidence for qualifying. Unfortunately, his machine had a problem about downshifting at this important point. In addition, the red flag prevented him from attacking as he wanted. However, Taito qualified 5th in a difficult situation.
"As early as private practice on Thursday, I had a good feeling about the Magny-Cours track," says Taito. After I had a problem downshifting, It wasn't ideal for perfect concentration. I was P2 at the start of the session, then P4 when a red flag forced us into the pits. When we restarted for a few minutes, I wasn't able to improve as much as I'd hoped and I found myself P5, just 2 tenths off a front row place."
Race 1 started on Sunday morning. Thanks to an excellent start, he moved up from 5th place to 3rd place on the opening lap. Taito kept this position and managed to return to the third step of the podium with a great fighting spirit in Race 1.
Taito started from 6th place in Race 2. Right after the start, the Safety Car was brought on because of an accident. The race restarted with less than 15 minutes to go. After the rolling start, the rivals battled just behind Taito and one of them hit Taito. Taito was unable to gain any places with a damaged single-seater, only managing an 8th-place finish.
Finally in Race 3 Taito picked up his best result of the weekend. He had another excellent start to the race and was able to quickly move up from 5th to 2nd place. He tried to push to get closer to the leader, but his tyres were starting to show signs of weakness. Taito was able to hold on to his position and finished Race 3 in 2nd position.