Irfan wins as British F4 title fight goes down to the wire

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

The British Formula 4 title fight will go down to the wire after Will Macintyre closed the gap to Louis Sharp as Josh Irfan won the reversed-grid race at Brands Hatch. 

Macintyre and Sharp finished seventh and 11th respectively, which puts the former within 10 points of his rival heading into the final race. 

Sharp started from the back of the order after taking pole in qualifying, with Deagen Fairclough and Aqil Alibhai between him and Macinityre.  

Those at the back of the field were immediately on the charge. Sharp picked off Mika Abrahams, James Piszyck and Dion Gowda before making his way past team-mate Gabriel Stilp. Sharp had a slightly harder time, but managed to find his way past Abrahams and Gowda to take 12th before a safety car neutralised running. 

Abrahams ran slightly wide and span. He was unable to get going again, prompting the interruption. 

Racing resumed with 11 minutes on the clock. 

Fairclough passed Macinytre shortly after the restart. The pair soon passed Le, another of Macintyre’s team-mates, and Fairclough began to close in on Higgins in fifth. That would be as far as either driver could make it up through the order. A small mistake for Fairclough meant he fell back slightly, but he was still just three tenths of a second behind Higgins at the chequered flag. Macinytre was a further second back in seventh. 

Meanwhile, Sharp struggled to find a way past Piszyck. The Hitech driver defended well and managed to keep Sharp behind him. 

With points awarded for positions gained, it meant Macintyre only closed the gap by three points before the season finale. 

Further up the order,  was a dominant victory for Irfan, who snatched the race lead from Isaac Barashi off the line. The Rodin Carlin driver didn’t put a wheel wrong throughott the race. A safety car put Barashi back on Irfan’s tail, but he couldn’t challenge for the win. Instead, he came under attack from Jack Sherwood who came through to take second, 0.678s behind.  

Barashi came under attack from Freddie Slater late on, but managed to hold onto the podium position. 

Race result (13 laps)