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

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)