McLaughlin quickest, Van Langendonck appears again in British F4 test

Photo: Red Bull

Hitech GP’s Fionn McLaughlin was quickest in British Formula 4’s in-season test day on Donington Park’s full Grand Prix layout.

JHR Developments’ Rowan Campbell-Pilling followed up his maiden victory last time out at Knockhill by setting the pace early on in session one.

Argenti Motorsport’s August Raber was first to lap sub-1m31s, and traded top spot with Virtuosi Racing’s Martin Molnar before McLaughlin broke into the 1m29s.

Raber returned to first place with a 1m29.779s when he crossed the line, then on his next lap Campbell-Pilling outpaced him by 0.007 seconds. The pace was lowered to 1m29.508s by Raber next, before Argenti’s Ethan Jeff-Hall had a run of personal bests at the top through to a 1m28.953s.

He was the only one to break the 1m29s barrier, with McLaughlin 0.274s behind in second and Raber improving to 1m29.277s on his penultimate lap to be third. Campbell-Pilling was fourth, and Xcel Motorsport’s Cole Hewetson was also within half a second of Jeff-Hall.

Different names led the way in session two, with Hewetson first into the 1m30s. He and team-mate Chase Fernandez continued improving in the first 12 minutes, with Rodin Motorsport’s Adam Al Azhari also briefly on top before Fernandez set a 1m29.029s benchmark that stood for a few minutes.

Next to go fastest was Fortec Motorsports’ Henry Joslyn, by just 0.025s, and he led the way for 10 minutes before McLaren junior Dries Van Langendonck posted a 1m28.875s that would go unbeaten in the session’s second half.

Behind the top three were Raber, team-mate Arjen Kraling, Molnar, Al Azhari, Ella Lloyd (Rodin) and Jeff-Hall.

Van Langendonck was making his second test outing with Rodin, having also driven at Brands Hatch this month.

The 14-year-old did half of the CIK-FIA European championship for OK karts this year but was still able to come eighth in the standings.

Another driver testing who is not a British F4 regular was Chris Dittmann Racing’s Piotr Orzechowski. The Pole has raced before, in round two at Silverstone.

Al Azhari and team-mate James Piszcyk went back-to-back at the top early in session three, then a 1m29.901s put Raber on top. A few seconds later he was usurped by Jeff-Hall , who improved three times in his next four laps to bring the pace down to 1m28.652s.

That lap kept him on top for 17 minutes before Joslyn went quickest by 0.111s. He later found another 0.099s, a key gain since McLaughlin beat his previous benchmark and got within 0.026s of him.

Jeff-Hall made a later gain to be 0.179s beind in third, with Molnar and Al Azhari within 0.26s of Joslyn. This time 0.5s split the top 11.

McLaughlin was the driver to beat in session four, with Van Langendonck briefly unseating him twice. A 1m28.281s set early on ended up being enough for first place overall, with Joslyn setting a new personal best 0.112s behind, and Molnar also beating his session three benchmark.

Raber pipped Van Langendonck to fourth. Al Azhari, Lloyd and Fernandez were the only non-improvers.

Test results