Home Formula 4British F4 Hedley takes dominant British F4 victory in Donington race three

Hedley takes dominant British F4 victory in Donington race three

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

James Hedley claimed a dominant win in final British Formula 4 race of the weekend at Donington Park to mark his place in the championship fight.

The reigning Ginetta Junior champion made a strong start from second on the grid to snatch the race lead heading to the first corner and was unchallenged for the remainder of the 20 minuet race.

Luke Browning was briefly brought back onto the tail of Hedley after a crash for Abbi Pulling brought out the safety car, but the Fortec driver couldn’t stick with Hedley on the restart.

Hedley got another good get away as Browning focused on defending against Zak O’Sullivan in third. By the time Browning had shaken the Carlin driver, Hedley had built a strong gap at the front of the order.

Browning put in the fastest lap of the race as he tried to catch Hedley, but ran out of time before he could get into a position to make a move and finished 1.6s behind Hedley.

O’Sullivan began to fall backwards in the closing stages of the race, battling to stay ahead of pole sitter Roberto Faria. He managed to retain the podium position, six seconds behind Browning, to extend his lead at the front of the championship standings.

Nathanael Hodgkiss ran into trouble in the closing stages of the race while battling Frederick Lubin at the back end of the top 10. Hodgkiss ran over the kerb and lost control of his car, heading into the barriers.

The incident was covered by local yellows, allowing racing to continue, but limited overtaking in the last part of the lap. This played into Mathias Zagazeta’s favour, as he was coming under pressure from Casper Stevenson. The Carlin driver managed to keep Stevenson behind him to take fifth.

Christian Mansell finished seventh ahead of Alex Connor, Rafael Villagomez, and Lubin.

 

Race results (16 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 James Hedley JHR Developments 20m59.975s
2 Luke Browning Fortec Motorsports +1.060s
3 Zak O’Sullivan Carlin +7.157s
4 Roberto Faria Fortec Motorsports +7.901s
5 Matias Zagazeta Carlin +9.044s
6 Casper Stevenson Argenti Motorsport +9.492s
7 Christian Mansell Carlin +10.493s
8 Alex Connor Arden +16.283s
9 Rafael Villagomez Fortec Motorsports +17.566s
10 Frederick Lubin Arden +20.473s
11 Nico Pino Argenti Motorsport +22.817s
12 Roman Bilinski Arden +25.254s
13 Reema Juffali Argenti Motorsport +27.032s
14 Nathanael Hodgkiss JHR Developments +2 laps
Ret Abbi Pulling JHR Developments
Fastest lap: Browning, 1m08.438s

Championship standings
1 O’Sullivan 52   2 Browning 36   3 Hedley 35   4 Stevenson 32   5 Connor 29   6 Faria 27   7 Villagomez 25   8 Lubin 15   9 Mansell 16   10 Zagazeta 12