Ninovic wins crazy British F4 race with Saturday start and Sunday finish

Photo: British F4

Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic won British Formula 4’s reversed-grid race at Zandvoort, which took two days and two attempts to complete.

Most of the field headed out on slick tyres for the race’s scheduled start on Saturday, but Argenti Motorsport’s Matus Ryba stopped at the final corner on the formation lap and it led to the actual start being delayed. In that period, team members were allowed on the grid and they brought with them wet tyres for their drivers to switch on to.

After 15 minutes another formation lap began, and Ryba stopped again. JHR Developments’ Ella Lloyd meanwhile came from the pits and so the pair were made to start from the back of the order after Ryba had initially reclaimed his fifth place grid slot.

When the next start took place, the lighting gantry did not go out when the race clock began and several drivers set off rather than wait. The result of that was multiple collisions, with James Higgins colliding with Rowan Campbell-Pilling on the pit straight, Jessica Edgar spinning and Maxwell Dodds, Ernesto Rivera and Nina Pothof also being caught out. Bianca Bustamante made it to turn one before she stopped on track, and red flags waved 19 seconds in.

The drivers were sent back to the paddock 15 minutes later, and the race was rescheduled to early on Sunday morning and with the same grid order.

When the race did restart on Sunday, Ninovic stormed past team-mate Abbi Pulling into the lead off the line and left the rest of the field behind.

Despite two spins during the race and a heavy crash for Reza Seewooruthun, the race ran green throughout, and Ninovic had a lead of over four seconds by the chequered flag.

Pulling finished second ahead of championship leader Deagan Fairclough, who started 12th but had already snatched third from Ella Lloyd early on. Fairclough spent the second half of the race trying to find a way past Pulling, who held on by 0.3 seconds.

Lloyd was drawn into a battle with Seewooruthun and Rowan Campbell-Pilling in the fight for fourth, with Martin Molnar also in the mix. Lloyd had managed to hold onto fourth when Seewooruthun and Campbell-Pilling came together.

Seewooruthun collided with the barrier and was taken out of the race, while Campbell-Pilling suffered damage to the front-left of his car. Despite the dramatic appearance of the crash, racing continued uninterrupted.

Jack Sherwood managed to take fourth from Lloyd later on, with Yuanpu Cui beating Molnar to seventh.

After an early battle, James Higgins took eighth ahead of Leo Robinson and Zack Scoular.

Race result (13 laps)