Fairclough cruises to 13th British F4 victory at Brands Hatch

Photo: British F4

Deagen Fairclough claimed a lights-to-flag victory in British Formula 4’s first race of the weekend on Brands Hatch’s Grand Prix layout.

Fairclough dominated proceedings and had a gap of more than six seconds when the safety car was brought out late on. An off for Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic had taken him out of the race and allowed team-mate James Higgins to close the gap to him in the battle to be championship runner-up.

The incident brought Reza Seewooruthun back onto the tail of Hitech GP team-mate Fairclough, but the race ended behind the safety car and so he could not fight for victory.

A good start for Fairclough took him out of reach on the opening lap. Leo Robinson in third also got a good getaway, but could not find a way past Seewooruthun and then came under attack from Ninovic.

With Robinson and Ninovic battling for third, Seewooruthun was able to pull away slightly, but failed to match Fairclough’s pace. The leader’s fastest lap was half a second quicker than Seewooruthun’s, and he did not put a wheel wrong on the way to his 13th victory of the season.

Ninovic continued to keep the pressure on Robinson for third, until his small but costly mistake. He ran slightly wide, putting him onto the damp grass so he lost grip. He then cut back across the track and ran into the barriers at Stirling, immediately ending his race.

The incident promoted everyone behind him up a position including Higgins. He had lost out to Jack Sherwood early in the race, dropping back to sixth. He could not find a way back past his Rodin team-mate, and he is now 65.5 points behind Ninovic.

Since an additional race has been added to this weekend’s schedule at notice, a rerunning of the race that got cancelled after one lap last time out at Silverstone, that means he can still usurp Ninovic in the standings.

Rowan Campbell-Pilling finished seventh, ahead of Bart Harrison and Kai Daryanani.

Race results (13 laps)