Abrahams takes first British F4 win after Berg gets track limits penalty

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Mika Abrahams won British Formula 4’s reversed-grid race at Donington Park, which ran several hours late due to all action being rained off in the morning.

Joel Bergstrom and Yuanpu Cui shared the front row, but both were jumped off the line by Alex Berg who snuck between them and was already comfortably ahead by the opening corner.

By the end of the lap Bergstrom was in fifth, behind Cui, Mika Abrahams and Jack Sherwood, then on lap two Cui lost ground as he got crowded and fell behind Abrahams, Sherwood and Deagen Fairclough to fifth while Bergstom sank to sixth.

At the end of the lap there was drama as contact at the final corner sent Martin Molnar spinning off, leading to the safety car leading the field through the next four laps.

Reza Seewooruthun went off at the restart and dropped from ninth to 19th, as Berg put six tenths of a second between himself and Abrahams. The gap between the top two got no larger than 0.7 seconds, and was down to 0.3s on the 17th and last lap when Berg was issued with a five-second penalty for track limits abuse.

That ended up costing Berg two spots, as a charging Fairclough had got within 2.9s of Abrahams at the finish. After the restart he had attacked Sherwood for third, and almost got pushed sideways into the gravel by him on lap eight.

They were banging wheels again on lap 11 after running side-by-side through several corners, with Sherwood somehow staying ahead. Cui then managed to go around the outside of both at Coppice, but a lack of straightline speed meant he was back behind both of them by the time they reached the final chicane.

Fairclough finally got a move done the next lap, by which point he was six seconds behind Abrahams. But in fresh air he was rapid, setting the fastest lap four times and earning second place as a result.

Sherwood finished fourth ahead of Higgins, who passed Ella Lloyd on lap eight (and was investigated for doing so under the safety car before that), Bergstrom on lap nine and then Cui on lap 12 when he had an off that dropped him to ninth place. Bergstrom fell from seventh to 13th on the same lap.

Cui lost one more spot before the finish, and another driver who dissapointed was Abbi Pulling. She started eighth, was 11th by lap two and finished 17th after being penalised five seconds for track limits abuse.

Race three of the weekend will not take place following the disruption to the event timetable caused by the weather.

Race results (17 laps)