Lennon wins incident-packed reversed-grid British F4 race

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Ethan Lennon won a safety car-dominated reversed-grid British Formula 4 race in the opening round at Donington Park.

An early red flag and two safety car periods disrupted running in the second race of the weekend. It was reduced to a four minute dash to the flag, in which Lennon was kept under pressure by Lewis Wherrel. Wherrel was able to get alongside Lennon but couldn’t find a way past and had to settle for second.

Lennon made a good initial start from pole position ahead of Ethan Carney, but behind them Haami Sadiq was tagged by Cash Felber and both were sent into a spin. Further along, Vegard Klemesten was sent into the gravel while Roman Felber and Joseph Smith also ran into trouble.

The safety car was called out as Sadiq’s car was stranded, but this soon became a red flag with a full restart.

Lennon made another strong start, but this time it was Scott Kin Lindblom who got the best getaway, climbing up to second on the first lap of the restart. But before he could challenge for the race lead, the safety car was brought out again.

This time, Alfie Slater had run into the gravel at McLean’s and could not get going again. While the field ran behind the safety car, Adam Al Azhari ran into problems and slowed to a stop. The green flag was thrown while Al Azhari was stationary on track, but the safety car was soon called back out again.

The early drama left less than four minutes on the clock when racing resumed for a third time. Kin Lindblom was initially on the attack on the restart, only to lose out to Wherrel, who pulled off a move around the outside at Coppice. 

Wherrel then focused on Lennon. He managed to go side by side with the race leader but was stuck on the outside and couldn’t get his nose ahead. Lennon was able to pull slightly clear, but was only 0.570s clear at the chequered flag.

Kin Lindblom took third, holding off race one winner Dries Van Langendonck. Van Langendonck had made an impressive start on the first attempt to get the race under way, climbing up eight places to fourth. He was put back to 12th on the grid for the full restart, and this time could only climb up to fifth before the safety car was called out. 

Van Langendonck picked up another position when Ethan Jeff-Hall took a trip through the grass and was challenging Kin Lindblom when they took the chequered flag,

Theo Palmer took fifth ahead of Carney, Cole Hewetson, and Jarret Clark. George Proudford-Nalder had been running fifth late in the race, challenging van Langendonck for position, but he slipped down the order in the final laps to finish 10th, behind Jeff-Hall.

Race results (13 laps)