Molnar leads the way through British F4 test and practice at Silverstone

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Virtuosi Racing’s Martin Molnar was the driver to beat in British F4’s test day and practice sessions on Silverstone’s National layout.

Pre-event testing on Thursday consisted of two three-and-a-half hour sessions, with 25 of the drivers racing this weekend plus three additional entries.

Molnar was quickest both times, and his gap at the top was the same as what split second down to 12th place. All but Xcel Motorsport’s Yuhao Fu, who was 10th overall, set their fastest laps in the second session and Molnar’s personal best was a 54.566s.

Fortec Motorsports’ Henry Joslyn was second, 0.204 seconds behind, and Rodin Motorsport’s Dries Langendonck was 0.094s was off Joslyn’s pace as he prepared for his second weekend of car racing.

Argenti Motorsport’s Ethan Jeff-Hall was just 0.001s slower than him, and next up were Fortec’s Ary Bansal and Hitech GP’s points leader Fionn McLaughlin. Half a second covered the top 17, and 26 drivers lapped within a second of Molnar’s pace.

Practice took place over two 45-minute sessions on Friday, and there were two red flag interruptions in FP1.

Molnar was first to lap at a representative pace a third of the way through the session, and then first into the 54s. Jeff-Hall soon beat him, setting a 54.919s then a 54.82s two laps later.

Rodin’s Adam Al Azhari beat that benchmark by 0.015s not long after, and spent a few minutes on top before Molnar posted a 54.654s. The first red flag period occurred after that, and once drivers were allowed back on track he lowered the pace to 54.585s before another interruption.

His final improvement came three minutes from the end, and several drivers got close to his best effort of 54.556s.

Al Azhari came within 0.029s of it, McLaughlin was just 0.001s slower than him, and Jeff-Hall was only 0.045s off top spot.

Chris Dittmann Racing’s Tommy Harfield was 0.11s behind in fifth, and 0.5s split first and 20th place. The next five drivers were still within 0.6s of Molnar, with JHR Developments’ Haarni Sadiq being the exception as he got half of the mileage that his rivals did.

There were 10 drivers who set personal bests in FP2, which ran green throughout.

Harfield was first to reach a representative pace, then Van Langendonck traded top spot with Al Azhari before Molnar went on a run of laps that brought the pace down into the 49s.

Harfield set two 54.8s to be fastest, and Molnar’s response was a 54.687s. Harfield bettered that by 0.006s, and only 14 minutes later was that beaten by a 54.616s from Bansal.

A 54.562s late on put Harfield back ahead and into second overall, with Joslyn lapping 0.091s shy in third. Bansal and Joslyn were sixth and seventh overall.

Jeff-Hall and Molnar were both within 0.125s of Harfield, and 0.5s covered the top 20.

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