Franco Girolami finished where he started the race at Zolder, in P4, after having first passed the ALM Motorsport Honda of Ruben Volt at the start, before he was then passed with four laps to go at Turn 4 by the Estonian, shortly after losing time when the rival CUPRA of Giovanni Scamardi rejoined the race just ahead of him.

Scamardi himself was having a tough race, losing time at the start when he had to reset his CUPRA on the grid and dropping to the rear, and then developing a puncture as he fought his way back through the field.

Scamardi would rejoin with a new tyre just ahead of Girolami, but coincidentally just behind his own team-mate Aurélien Comte.

“It was a difficult race for us, with the compensation weight and also with the change in BoP,” said Girolami. “We didn’t have the pace against (Nicola) Baldan or the Hondas, but scoring the points for fourth position isn’t bad.

“It was a shame when Scamardi came out of the box a lap down and blocked me for two or three laps, and after that Volt was able to overtake me, which is a shame as we deserved to be P3.

“He didn’t respect the blue flags, I lost a lot of time behind him which helped Volt to pass me.”

Scamardi was marked for investigation for not respecting the blue flags, but in the end no action was taken. The Belgian driver was surprised that he was flagged at all.

“I don’t really understand the investigation, as the blue flag was there when Girolami was really far behind, and I was faster than him,” he said.

“I understand his frustration, but for me, I don’t think I have to give the place if I’m faster. On my first lap, there was no blue flag so I thought that must have meant Girolami was too far back, and then Girolami was even further back when the blue flag eventually did come out, which I didn’t understand.”