Chase Fernandez wins disrupted British F4 race two at Donington

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Chase Fernandez won the first British Formula 4 reversed-grid race of the season ahead of a hard-charging Martin Molnar.

Molnar had been looking for a way past Fernandez when the red flag was thrown with less than two minutes on the clock, bringing the second race of the weekend at Donington Park to an early end.

Fernandez took the race lead off the line, jumping past pole-sitter Joel Bergstrom while Molnar overtook Adam Al Azhari to move up to fourth. 

In the middle of the pack, an incident sent cars scrambling wide. Included in that was Henry Joslyn, who ran through the gravel at the chicane. Yuhao Fu was left stationary and in need of assistance, bringing out the safety car.

Molnar and Al Azhari resumed their battle on the restart.  Al Azhari briefly got back ahead, but Molnar retook the position at Redgate. The following lap, he made a similar move on Bergstrom when the polesitter left the door open. 

Molnar set the fastest lap of the race chasing after Fernandez, who had been running untroubled at the front of the field. Within a lap, the pair were nose to tail and Fernandez was forced onto the defence. Molnar pushed hard, but couldn’t find a way through before the race came to a premature end. 

Ella Lloyd, recovering from a trip to the pits early on, came to a stop on the back straight. With just two minutes remaining, the race was red flagged, not to be restarted.

Fernandez secured then his first win of the season, with Molnar being classified in second place just 0.149s behind him.

Rowan Campbell-Pilling had passed Bergstrom to take third, and also Al Azhari, dropping the polesitter to fifth at the flag.

Thomas Bearman took the rookie honours in sixth overall ahead of James Piszcyk and race one winner August Raber. Tommy Harfield and Leo Robinson completed the top 10. However, Campbell-Pilling, Al Azhari, Bearman, Raber and Harfield all received five-second penalties for exceeding track limits, prompting Robinson up into fifth.

Race results (13 laps)