McLaren’s Van Langendonck ends first weekend in car racing with a win

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

McLaren junior Dries Van Langendonck ended his first weekend of car racing with victory in British Formula 4 race three at Donington Park.

Rodin Motorsport driver Van Langendonck lost the lead from pole after a slow start, but stayed in touch with the top two of Tommy Harfield and Martin Molnar.

He was set to inherit second after Molnar was penalised five seconds for track limits abuse, but the Virtuosi Racing driver continued to push as he sought the lead. When he went down the inside of Harfield in an attempted pass he locked up and made contact, with Van Langendonck taking the lead ahead of Molnar while Harfield spun and fell down the order.

Chris Dittmann Racing’s Harfield had jumped into the lead off the line, as Van Langendonck tried and failed to defend second from Molnar. They remained within half a second of each other while gapping Van Langendonck before their clash.

Once he was behind, Molnar could not match Van Langendonck and finished 6.518s behind the rookie driver with a significant dropoff in the last few laps. Another five-second track limits penalty meant he was classified in ninth.

Argenti Motorsport’s August Raber and Ethan Jeff-Hall profited to complete the podium, both over seven seconds behind Van Langendonck. 

Ary Bansal finished fourth on track, ahead of Jeff-Hall, but a 10s track limits penalty demoted him to 11th. He had spent the race’s early stages battling with Thomas Bearman, before an incident dropped Bearman down the order.

Adam Al Azhari had battled with Raber early on, but got a puncture after they made contact. He lost control of his car and went into the gravel, coming to a stop against the barriers as the race’s first retiree.

It did not disrupt the race, and there were further incidents. Henry Joslyn suffered front wing damage and narrowly avoided hitting the wall as he skidded off, and later Joseph Smith ran over the back of Chase Fernandez’s car as the pack bunched up at a corner. They both emerged from it with damage, while Thomas Ingram Hill suffered problems with his rear suspension.

After all penalties were applied, James Piszcyk was classified fourth ahead of Fionn McLaughlin. That result earned the latter the title in the rookie classification.

Cole Hewetson finished a personal best sixth, ahead of Rowan Campbell-Pilling and the recovering Harfield.

Race results (17 laps)