Fairclough wins red-flag disrupted Thruxton British F4 race

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Deagen Fairclough took a lights-to-flag victory in a disrupted opening British Formula 4 race of the weekend.

A crash for the two Xcel Motorsport drivers brought out the red flags after a handful of laps of the Thruxton circuit. The incident resulted in one of the cars stopping against the catch fencing, but both drivers were able to walk away from the incident. 

The race was switched to a seven-lap affair after the delay, with Fairclough emerging on top.

After having his second-best time from qualifying reinstated, promoting him onto pole, Fairclough got a good getaway to hold onto the lead from Jack Sherwood and a strong-starting Reza Seewooruthun. The two chasers just beginning to put pressure on the leader when the incident further down the order brought out the safety car and then the red flag.

A penalty had meant Zack Scoular started ninth on the grid, and was immediately on the attack. He was forced slightly wide and dropped back to P18, where he began to battle with team-mate August Raber and the two collided. 

Seewooruthun got the best start on the restart, but couldn’t take second from Sherwood. As the pair battled, Fairclough was able to escape down the road, and was untouchable from that point onwards.

Fairclough set the fastest lap of the race on his way to his third win of the season.

Behind him, Sherwood was defending hard and had a train of cars behind him, with Abbi Pulling, Alex Ninovic and Alex Berg not far behind Seewooruthun. He seemed to have it under control until the final lap, when a clash at the back part of the circuit caused issues for both Sherwood and Seewooruthun. Sherwood slipped back to fourth, but Seewooruthun suffered damage to his right rear tyre and came to a stop on track.

The incident promoted Pulling to second, her second podium finish of the season, more than three seconds behind Fairclough.

Ninovic picked up third, ahead of Sherwood, Berg, and Mika Abrahams.

James Higgins had been battling with Ninovic behind Pulling for much of the race, but was forced wide while running side by side with his team-mate. He dropped back behind Ninovic and Berg, and slipped back to eighth by the chequered flag, with Leo Robinson just ahead.

Yuanpu Cui and Kai Daryanani completed the top 10.

Race result (7 laps)