Home Formula 4British F4 Gowda wins, Sharp gets points lead in penalty-filled F4 race at Donington

Gowda wins, Sharp gets points lead in penalty-filled F4 race at Donington

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Dion Gowda converted pole position into victory in the second British Formula 4 race at Donington Park as seven drivers were penalised over track limits abuse. 

The drivers running second through to fifth on track all received five-second penalties and James Higgins was promoted to second as a result. Despite his penalty, Louis Sharp finished on the podium and took over the points lead. 

It was a clean start for Gowda, who took pole for this rescheduled race back at Snetterton in May. As he pulled away, second placed Sharp came under attack from the Hitech GP duo of Kanato Le and William Macintyre. 

Le found a way past Sharp to take second on lap one, with Macintyre following him through. Sharp attempted to fight back and, initially, Macintyre was able to hold him off. It wasn’t long before Sharp was back ahead and challenging Le. 

A move down the inside of Le put Sharp back in second and he kept the pressure on Gowda, but the leader did not put a wheel wrong and there were no opportunities for Sharp to make a move. 

As Sharp tried to find a way past, he exceeded track limits one too many times, earning his penalty. 

That would have put him behind Macintyre, as well as Deagen Fairclough and Le who were running third and fourth. However, all three had received identical penalties for exceeding track limits. 

Gowda and Sharp had a good gap to the rest of the field, but Sharp was just under five seconds ahead of James Higgins on track. That meant the Fortec Motorsports driver was promoted to second ahead of Sharp and Fairclough.

Gustav Jonsson started from the back of the grid and climbed his way up to seventh on track. The penalties for those ahead then promoted him to fifth, ahead of Macintyre. Josh Irfan finished seventh while Le was dropped to eighth. 

Alqil Alibhai was ninth on-track, but a penalty dropped him out of the top 10. Instead, Jack Sherwood and James Piszcyk completed the points positions.

Race result (14 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Dion Gowda Carlin 20m51.600s
2 James Higgins Fortec Motorsports +5.275s
3 Louis Sharp Carlin +5.651s
4 Deagen Fairclough JHR Developments +7.944s
5 Gustav Jonsson Chris Dittmann Racing +8.437s
6 William Macintyre Hitech GP +8.866s
7 Josh Irfan Carlin +8.948s
8 Kanato Le Hitech GP +9.733s
9 Jack Sherwood Chris Dittmann Racing +9.803s
10 James Piszcyk Hitech GP +11.052s
11 Patrick Heuzenroeder Argenti Motorsport +13.497s
12 Aqil Alibhai Virtuosi Racing +14.163s
13 Noah Lisle Carlin +16.997s
14 Gabiel Stilp Hitech GP +17.675s
15 Douwe Dedecker Virtuosi Racing +20.245s
16 Kai Daryanani Virtuosi Racing +21.211s
17 Isaac Barashi Argenti Motorsport +23.271s
Fastest lap: Jonsson, 1m28.491s

Championship standings
1 Sharp 302   2 Macintyre 298   3 Gowda 234   4 Fairclough 210   5 Higgins 192   6 Le 181   7 Piszcyk 180   8 Lisle 137   9 Jonsson 128   10 Alibhhai 123