Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
British Formula 4 teams have already enjoyed two days of track action at Knockhill this week ahead of racing there this weekend, with Hitech GP’s Deagen Fairclough setting the pace.
There were four test sessions on Wednesday, followed by two practice sessions on Friday, and Fairclough was fastest in all but one of the six.
A 48.367s lap put Fairclough on top of the first test session, with an advantage of 0.211 seconds over Rodin Motorsport’s Jack Sherwood in second place and 0.237s over Argenti Motorsport’s Rowan Campbell-Pilling in third.
Alongside Bart Harrison, who was ninth fastest, Chris Dittmann Racing had a second car out for Tommy Harfield. He first tested with the team at Pembrey last month, and is currently third in the BRSCC Fiesta Junior championship.
Fairclough lowered the pace to 48.080s in session two, and this time was fastest by 0.129s over Rodin’s Abbi Pulling. Campbell-Pilling was third again, this time 0.291s off the pace, and Sherwood was fourth.
Session three was slower, although Campbell-Pilling did set a new personal best with the 48.299s lap that put him on top. He was one of six drivers out of 21 to improve, and he was fastest by 0.206s over Pulling. Sherwood trailed by 0.21s in third, with team-mate Alex Ninovic just 0.002s further behind and with Fairclough 0.282s off the top in fifth.
Alhough Fairclough returned to first place in session four, setting a 48.469s to lead Rodin’s James Higgins by 0.16s and Hitech’s Reza Seewooruthun by 0.212s. Seewooruthun was the only driver to improve, and it put him 11th overall. Around the sub-minute lap, the top 17 were covered by 0.905s and that group was completed by Harfield.
Fairclough faced more competition from the off when track action resumed on Friday, and in FP1 he was fastest by a tiny 0.031s after setting a 48.271s on his last lap.
Campbell-Pilling had posted a 48.302s on his penultimate tour and ended up in second, with Xcel Motorsport’s Zack Scoular 0.158s behind in third. Higgins, Ninovic and Pulling were all also within 0.2s of the pace, and 0.763s covered the top 18 as Virtuosi Racing’s Yuhao Fu was the only driver more than a second slower than Fairclough in 19th.
More than half of the field improved their pace in FP2, and that included Fairclough who set a 48.148s to lead Harrison by 0.269s. Between Ninovic in third and JHR Developments’ Leo Robinson in eighth there was a difference of just 0.067s on pace. This time 0.839s covered everyone but Fu.
Results round-up
Pre-event testing
1 Deagen Fairclough Hitech GP 48.080s
2 Abbi Pulling Rodin Motorsport +0.129s
3 Rowan Campbell-Pilling Argenti Motorsport +0.219s
4 Jack Sherwood Rodin Motorsport +0.372s
5 Zack Scoular Xcel Motorsport +0.386s
6 Alex Ninovic Rodin Motorsport +0.410s
7 James Higgins Rodin Motorsport +0.432s
8 Leo Robinson JHR Developments +0.535s
9 Bart Harrison Chris Dittmann Racing +0.538s
10 Martin Molnar Virtuosi Racing +0.549s
Free practice
1 Fairclough 48.148s
2 Campbell-Pilling +0.154s
3 Harrison +0.269s
4 Scoular +0.281s
5 Ninovic +0.307s
6 Higgins +0.309s
7 Pulling +0.319s
8 Sherwood +0.328s
9 Reza Seewooruthun Hitech GP +0.330s
10 Robinson +0.374s