Fairclough adds to British F4 win tally with second Knockhill victory

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Deagen Fairclough added to his British Formula 4 win tally with a lights-to-flag victory in the final race of the weekend at Knockhill.

Hitech’s championship leader was untroubled throughout the race and had already extended a considerable lead when Rowan Campbell-Pilling found a way back past Martin Molnar for second place. Campbell-Pilling put in an impressive drive to close the gap, but was given a penalty for exceeding track limits and dropped back to fourth.

Fairclough’s victory puts him 101 points clear of Alex Ninovic in the championship standings after the Rodin Motorsport driver finished third.

For most of the race, the battles were further down the order and outside of the points.

Molnar had initially jumped up to second off the grid and was able to hold off Campbell-Pilling briefly, but it wasn’t long before Campbell-Pilling came through to take second. Molnar and Ninovic tried to stay with him, but the top four gradually became spread out. Through the second half of the race there was little interaction between them. Fairclough was more than four seconds clear of Campbell-Pilling at the chequered flag and six seconds clear of Molnar.

The gaps between the drivers meant that Campbell-Pilling only dropped back to fourth, behind Ninovic but ahead of Jack Sherwood.

The main battle in the closing stages of the race involved Abbi Pulling, Reza Seewooruthun and Yuanpu Cui in the fight for seventh. Cui was initially putting the pressure on Seewooruthun and was able to get alongside the Hitech driver, but Seewooruthun held onto the position and closed the gap to Pulling. Pulling didn’t have the same pace as those behind her and a train began to form, but she put in a strong defence to finish seventh, behind Bart Harrison. Seewooruthun took eighth, ahead of Cui and Leo Robinson.

Race results (19 laps)