After an extensively long break forced by COVID, MAXX Formula finally got their cars back on the grid. The season opener takes place at Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, just one week prior to the French F1 Grand Prix 2021. Together with the FIA French Historic F1 Grand Prix and many other exciting racing series, the MAXX Formula big open single seaters held their first 2 practices during the Friday sessions.

As many drivers did not have the chance yet to test their cars after the long break, the two sessions were mainly coined by getting back into the flow and up to speed and to check the particular cars in terms of reliability. FP1 has been finally lead by Nicolas Matile, followed by David Moretti. Wolfgang Jaksch as well as Didier Sirgue with their modern F1 cars (Super Aguri SA 06 and Williams FW 33) set P3 and P4 followed by Martin Kindler. Christopher Brenier, one of the pointed contender for the race wins, had problems with his gearbox and needed to switch to the spare car in FP2, where he showed his entire experience and skills and lead the final scoreboard, followed by Wolfgang Jaksch.

Gilles Brenier, father of Christopher and also competing with the V12 SuperLeague Formula had a technical problem in FP1 and could not complete a timing lap. However, in FP2, he literally nailed his V12 on P4 and showed a very strong performance level. A bit unlucky were the Speed Center pilots Christian Eicke and Peter Göllner, both had technical problems with their GP2 cars and were not able to show their real pace yet. Anton Werner with his impressive and roaring IndyCar placed himself on P10 in FP1 and improved to P8 in FP2.

Hans Laub in his newly aquainted GP2 made his comeback after a very long break and was immediately listed in the midfield finishing FP1 on P9 and FP2 on P7! Newcomer Stefan Glaser had still adopting problems with the new environment and started his free practice sessions with a “safety first” approach and finished P8 in FP1 and P9 in FP2. There is definitely more to expect from him in Saturday`s qualifying and the two races on Saturday and Sunday. The scoreboard was completed by Karl-Heinz Becker, the racing legend from Germany, who again decided to extend his 50+ years racing career for another season with MAXX Formula. He finished both free practices without any issues and reached P13 and P11!

The only woman competing in MAXX Formula, Veronika Jaksch, made her personal F1 debut in the newly rebuilt Toro Rosso STR8. While trying to get used to the beautiful F1 car, she improved her lap times on a consistent basis and finally ended up on P11 in FP1 and P10 in FP2. She mastered already Paul Ricard in a GP2 in 2017 and based on her previous performance, we may expect continuous improvement level over the race weekend.

Please find the detailed results here:

Paul Ricard Free Practice 1 Results

Paul Ricard Free Practice 2 Result

Saturday will start with the Qualifying session at 8:55am, followed by Race 1 at 4:45pm!