Home Formula 4British F4 Matias Zagazeta earns maiden British F4 victory at Brands Hatch

Matias Zagazeta earns maiden British F4 victory at Brands Hatch

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Matias Zagazeta claims his maiden British Formula 4 win with a dominant performance at Brands Hatch Indy.

The Argenti Motorsport driver jumped up to first place on the opening lap and was unchallenged through the remainder of the 25-lap race.

JHR Developments’ poleman McKenzy Cresswell stuck with Zagazeta through the first half of the race but was never close enough to put up a challenge and slowly slipped back to more than two seconds adrift.

The main battle through the race was that for the final step on the podium.

Matthew Rees took third from Kai Askey early on but was unable to shake the Carlin driver. James Hedley and Joel Granfors made it a four-way battle in the closing stages, though the two Fortec drivers continued to battle among themselves and almost let the podium battle slip away.

Askey managed to find a way back past JHR’s Rees late on. Hedley immediately closed onto the back of his title rival but with Granfors on his tail he didn’t risk a move. He finbished just 0.204s behind Rees, with Granfors a further 0.215s behind.

After a strong start, Joseph Loake slipped backwards to finish seventh ahead of Abbi Pulling. Aiden Neate rounded out his debut weekend in the series by passing and then holding off Argenti team-mate Eduardo Coseteng to take ninth.

Race results (25 laps)

Pos Driver Team Time
1 Matias Zagazeta Argenti Motorsport 20m00.662s
2 McKenzy Cresswell JHR Developments +2.244s
3 Kai Askey Carlin +4.921s
4 Matthew Rees JHR Developments +5.973s
5 James Hedley Fortec Motorsports +6.177s
6 Joel Granfors Fortec Motorsports +6.392s
7 Joseph Loake JHR Developments +6.892s
8 Abbi Pulling JHR Developments +7.071s
9 Aiden Neate Argenti Motorsport +8.935s
10 Eduardo Coseteng Argenti Motorsport +11.210s
11 Oliver Gray Fortec Motorsports +11.829s
12 Roman Bilinski Carlin +15.286s
13 Zak Taylor Arden +15.929s
14 Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak Carlin +16.172s
15 Dougie Bolger Carlin +16.545s
16 Marcos Flack Argenti Motorsport +16.972s
17 Thomas Ikin Arden +19.099s
18 David Morales Arden +23.887s
Ret Georgi Dimitrov Richardson Racing
Fastest lap: Loake, 46.959s

Championship standings
1
Hedley 120   2 Rees 100   3 Cresswell 79   4 Zagazeta 68   5 Granfors 61   6 Pulling 58   7 Taylor 53   8 Gray 47   9 Loake 41   10 Flack 32