Proudford-Nalder holds of Wherrell for BRDC International Trophy victory

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

George Proudford-Nalder held off a late charge from Lewis Wherrell to win the final British Formula 4 race at Silverstone and the BRDC International Trophy.

Proudford-Nalder was forced to defend hard in the final laps as championship leader Wherrell looked for a way through. The JHR Developments driver looked to have the advantage at one point, but ran slightly wide and was forced to slot in back behind the race leader.

Wherrell couldn’t find a way through on the final lap and finished just 0.158s back in second.

As in race 2, the final race of the weekend was red flagged after the opening lap as multiple cars had run into problems. Jarrett Clark had run off into the gravel after contact and couldn’t get going again, while Roman Felber and Joseph Smith came to a stop on track facing one another, both with damaged front wings. Ella Lloyd also ran into the gravel at Club Corner.

Polesitter Proudford-Nalder had held onto the race lead on the initial start, but came under attack from Wherrell. The restart put the latter back into fourth on the grid. On the second attempt, Wherrell wasn’t quite as quick off the line, allowing Proudford-Nalder to pull away a little while Wherrell battled with Ethan Jeff-Hall.

It didn’t take Wherrell long to pass Jeff-Hall. A move up the inside of Palmer brought him into second but, by this point, Proudford-Nalder already had a gap of over 1.2s.

Wherrell put in fastest laps of the race as he closed onto the back of Proudford-Nalder. By the penultimate lap, the pair were nose to tail and comfortably ahead of the rest of the field. Wherrell made multiple attempts to get ahead of Proudford-Nalder, running alongside the race leader for multiple corners, but couldn’t make a move stick.

Proudford-Nalder held on to take his maiden victory in the championship and his first podium finish as well as the revived BRDC International Trophy, which was last awarded for contemporary machinery for Formula 3000 winners at Silverstone from 1985 to 2004, having previously been held for Formula 1 and Formula 2 cars prior to that.

Behind them, Palmer came home a distant third, comfortably ahead of the battle for fourth.

Jeff-Hall was initially under pressure from Adam Al Azhari. The Hitech driver attempted a move that didn’t stick, allowing Dries Van Langendonck to pull alongside him. Van Langendonck came through but Jeff-Hall managed to remain ahead.

For the remainder of the race, Jeff-Hall had van Langendonck on his tail, with Al Azhari close behind. Neither made a move stick during the race, and the trio finished within one second of each other.

Kit Belofsky took seventh ahead of Timo Jungling, Ethan Carney and Cash Felber.

Race results (13 laps)