Piszcyk’s British F4 title hopes boosted by win while McLaughlin retires

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

James Piszcyk won British Formula 4’s reversed-grid race on Donington Park’s Grand Prix layout, while title rivals Fionn McLaughlin and Martin Molnar suffered front wing damage in separate incidents.

McLaughlin’s wing went underneath his car and the championship leader was forced to retire, while Molnar pitted and finished in 20th.

A good start for Piszcyk allowed him to jump from third to first, with Adam Al Azhari rising from fourth to second. The top two were unchallenged thereon and Piszcyk’s suprerior start helped him initially pull away from Rodin Motorsport team-mate Al Azhari.

He began catching Piszcyk in the race’s second half, setting the fastest lap and briefly closing the gap to just half a second. But Piszcyk did not put a wheel wrong and finished 0.746 seconds clear for his fourth win of 2025 and boost his title hopes.

Ethan Jeff-Hall took third after a close battle with August Raber and Arjen Kraling. Raber had led the battle for much of the race but a move around the outside put Jeff-Hall at the head of their pack. He was able to break away from Raber and began to close the gap to the leaders, but was still 4.4s behind Piszcyk by the time the chequered flag waved.

Raber held onto fourth ahead of Thomas Bearman. Ary Bansal was sixth on track but a five-second penalty for track limits abuse dropped him to eighth.

At the tail end of the top 10, McLaughlin was trying to find a way forward when he ran into trouble. He had slipped behind Tommy Harfield and debutant Dries Van Langendonck early in the race and was trying to recover positions.

At one point he put a wheel on a damp part of the track and made contact with Henry Joslyn, sending Joslyn into a spin. Behind them, Chase Fernandez spun in avoidance.

McLaughlin tried to continue, but his broken front wing led to the black-and-orange flag being shown and he was forced to retire in the pits.

Joslyn also ended his race after heading to the pitlane, as did Harfield, while Cole Hewetson and Molnar finished the race after pitstops.

Harfield had been involved in a close battle with Van Langendonck at the tail end of the top 10. The pair made slight contact, and Harfield was left with a rear-right puncture. Van Langendonck was able to continue to finish sixth, ahead of Kraling and the penalised Bansal. Alexander Savinkov, also in his first weekend in British F4, was ninth.

Race results (14 laps)