Macintyre tops super close British F4 practice at Knockhill

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Hitech GP’s William Macintyre was fastest in British Formula 4 free practice at Knockhill today by just 0.019 seconds.

Both sessions were hotly contested, with 0.787s covering the whole field at the end of the day.

It was initially an all-Hitech battle to be quickest in FP1, with James Piszyck leading team-mates Gabriel Stilp and Kanato Le by 0.084s and 0.104s respectively.

JHR Developments’ Deagen Fairclough was best of the rest, 0.112s off the pace, before Rodin Carlin’s Dion Gowda jumped from seventh to first with 17 minutes left of the session by setting a 48.352s lap.

That put him 0.006s ahead of Piszyck, and his team-mate Louis Sharp went fourth fastest, 0.101s off the benchmark.

Chris Dittmann Racing’s Gustav Jonsson then topped the times, having previously been sat in 14th, by setting a 48.277s. That was just 0.002s faster than Gowda, who improved his pace.

It was all change at the top again in the final six minutes, as Sharp moved 0.185s clear with a 48.083s laptime. Macintyre went second fastest, with the previous pacesetters shuffled down to third and fourth.

FP1 ended with Sharp breaking into sub-48s territory, and Gowda improving to get back past Jonsson into third. Everyone lapped sub-49s, with 0.829s covering the 19-car field.

Several hours later the drivers were back on track for FP2, and Chris Dittmann Racing’s Jack Sherwood was the early benchmark driver as he set a 48.307s. That kept him on top for over 10 minutes until Sharp set a 48.125s, and five minutes later the session was red flagged.

It restarted with 18 minutes left on the clock, but six minutes later the session had been stopped again as Jonsson appeared to strike trouble after going second fastest.

The next restart left drivers with six minutes, and Macintyre made the most of it. He and Stilp moved into second and third once they were setting flying laps, then both gained a place each with 90s to go as they broke into 47s territory.

Nobody else could improve their pace after, and the Hitech pair finished the session split by 0.021s at the top and with Sharp 0.163s behind in third.

Sharp’s FP1 time was enough to put him second overall though, with Gowda also not bettering his pace from earlier in the day and so ending up seventh overall. They were among eight drivers whose personal bests came in FP1.

Free practice results