Bart Horsten takes first British F4 win in stop-start Donington race

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Bart Horsten took his first British Formula 4 victory in a stop-start second race at Donington Park.

The Arden driver shot into the lead at the start, passing the battling Roberto Faria of Fortec Motorsports and Carlin’s Joe Turney.

Horsten then extended a lead of almost two seconds when the race was red flagged as Faria was sent into the tyre barriers after contact with Richardaon Racing’s Luke Browning.

On the restart, Horsten came under pressure from Turney and JHR Developments driver Carter Williams, making it a three-way battle for the race lead. Williams briefly took first place, but Horsten was able to battle back to the front of the field before the second Fortec car of Mariano Martinez came to a stop on track, bringing out the safety car.

Horsten made a strong restart, but Turney was soon back on his tail. The Carlin driver stayed close to the race leader but couldn?t find a way past and was still running second when the race was red flagged after Williams, who had been running third, fell into the gravel three minutes before the chequered flag.

The race came to an early end, with Horsten moving up to third in the standings with his first win and Turney into fourth off the back of his first podium

After spending much of the race in the battle for fourth, championship leader Louis Foster was promoted to the final podium position, ahead of debuting Arden driver Alex Connor, Foster’s Double R team-mate and title rival Sebastian Alvarez, and Carlin’s Zane Maloney.

Josh Skelton enjoyed an unusual race, jumping the start by a considerable margin before coming to a stop just out of his grid box. He remained stranded on the grid as the rest of the field swarmed past, but managed to get going without any damage to climb up to seventh by the chequered flag.

After his brief stoppage, Martinez was able to get going again and finished eighth, ahead of Browning and Reema Juffali.

Race results (9 laps)