Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Hitech GP’s Deagen Fairclough claimed a double pole position at the end of a British Formula 4 qualifying session at Knockhill that was red flagged three times.
Almost everyone managed to set one flying lap each at the start of the 20-minute session before Xcel Motorsport’s Zack Scoular went off at the chicane and red flags had to be brought out.
Scoular was actually second fastest at the time, only behind Argenti Motorsport’s Rowan Campbell-Pilling who was the sole driver to sneak in a second timed lap before the session was paused, and Fairclough was 0.044 seconds behind Scoular in third. Fortec Motorsports’ Kai Daryanani was denied the chance to even set a lap before the clock stopped.
There was a break of almost 10 minutes before qualifying restarted, with 17 minutes left, and Scoular was shuffled down to fourth by Argenti’s Yuanpu Cui and Virtuosi Racing’s Martin Molnar when the next laps came in.
A more representative pace was set after that, with Campbell-Pilling improving to 49.001s to lead Cui by 0.453s and Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic by 0.629s. His team-mate Jack Sherwood was the only other driver within a second of the pace.
Fairclough reduced Campbell-Pilling’s advantage to 0.186s, and Hitech’s Reza Seewooruthun went fourth fastest on the next laps, then Cui lowered the pace to 48.993s and Ninovic improved to 49.192s in fourth.
Red flags waved again with 13 minutes left of qualifying as Rodin’s James Higgins went off at Clark corner, and there was a six-minute break before the session got going again.
The first improvements after this restart came with just over nine minutes left of qualifying, and Campbell-Pilling took top spot from Cui with a 48.699s as Ninovic was shown the black-and-white flag for track limits abuse.
Fairclough got within 0.069s of Campbell-Pilling, and Fortec’s Alex Berg jumped from 10th to fourth with a 49.075s lap while JHR Developments’ Ella Lloyd improved to 49.121s in fifth.
A few seconds later Molnar came just 0.033s shy of Campbell-Pilling’s pace, and Cui then set a personal best but stayed in fourth.
Campbell-Pilling lowered the pace again on his next lap, setting a 48.486s, and Fairclough got within 0.144s of the new benchmark. Ninovic demoted Cui to fifth, and Daryanani rose up to sixth place with a 49.037s lap.
Improvements kept on coming, and Seewooruthun was back in fourth with six-and-a-half minutes to go and Sherwood was in fifth. Molnar beat Fairclough by 0.006s to snatch second place, only to then find himself in fourth as Campbell-Pilling, Fairclough and Ninovic all set new personal bests and the pace was lowered to 48.348s.
With just over five minutes to go the red flags waved again due to Virtuosi’s Yuhao Fu going off at McIntyre. Once his car was retrieved he drove back to the pits, and qualifying restarted again after a six-minute break.
Fairclough finally beat Campbell-Pilling with 97s to go, setting a 47.274s to take race three pole by 0.074s. Harrison went fourth fastest half a minute later, before Sherwood beat him in the final second of qualifying. After the chequered flag, Molnar then went third fastest.
The second-best laptimes set race one’s grid, and Fairclough earned pole by 0.069s over Campbell-Pilling.
Qualifying round-up
Race 3 grid
1 Deagen Fairclough Hitech GP 48.274s
2 Rowan Campbell-Pilling Argenti Motorsport +0.074s
3 Martin Molnar Virtuosi Racing +0.237s
4 Alex Ninovic Rodin Motorsport +0.278s
5 Jack Sherwood Rodin Motorsport +0.294s
6 Bart Harrison Chris Dittmann Racing +0.329s
7 Abbi Pulling Rodin Motorsport +0.341s
8 Reza Seewooruthun Hitech GP +0.360s
9 Yuanpu Cui Argenti Motorsport +0.443s
10 Leo Robinson JHR Developments +0.448s
Race 1 grid
1 Fairclough 48.351s
2 Campbell-Pilling +0.069s
3 Molnar +0.263s
4 Ninovic +0.310s
5 Seewooruthun +0.312s
6 Sherwood +0.314s
7 Harrison +0.342s
8 Pulling +0.403s
9 Cui +0.428s
10 Robinson +0.438s