Fairclough earns second British F4 win at Donington

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Deagen Fairclough won a wet reversed-grid British Formula 4 race at Donington Park ahead of championship contender Will Macintyre. 

The Rokit Race Stars winner took the race lead after a wide moment for Isaac Barashi and was unstoppable at the front of the order. He finished more than seven seconds ahead of second place. 

Kai Daryanani started from pole position but it was the strong-starting Barashi who was in the lead at the end of lap one. He had broken a small gap to Fairclough in second when the safety car was brought out for an incident between Gustav Jonsson and Josh Irfan that left both cars in the gravel.  

Barashi held onto the lead at the restart but a wide moment over the kerbs allowed Fairclough to come through to first. He held onto second and was comfortable in that position as Jack Sherwood, Daryanani and Macintyre battled for third. Macintyre briefly took third, only for Sherwood to come back and take the position. 

Once Sherwood was ahead, he closed the gap to Barashi, bringing Macintyre with him, and was fighting to find a way through. The battle continued into the penultimate lap when Barashi span, making contact with Sherwood and damaging the Chris Dittmann Racing driver’s front wing. 

Macintyre avoided the incident to come through to second, but was too far back to challenge Fairclough on the final lap. 

Noah Lisle managed to avoid the drama to come through to third, while a last lap move allowed Louis Sharp to jump from sixth to fourth, having started 21st.

Freddie Slater climbed up through the order to finish fifth in his second Formula 4 race, ahead of Aqil Alibhai and Gabriel Stilp. 

Daryanani dropped to eighth by the chequered flag, while Dion Gowda and Griffin Peebles completed the top 10. 

Race result (11 laps)