Piszcyk wins British F4 race three at Donington as rivals are penalised

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Rodin Motorsport’s James Pisczyk took the victory in the final British F4 race of the weekend at Donington Park as track limit penalties dropped the race leaders out of the top five.

Argenti Motorsport’s August Raber led the race from start to finish on track and was under pressure from Hitech’s Fionn McLaughlin throughout. However, track limit penalties for both drivers meant it was the driver that came third on the road who claimed the victory.

The race came to an early end after Ella Lloyd and Joel Bergstrom tangled and ended up in the gravel with less than three minutes remaining in the clock. Like race two, it was red-flagged and did not resume.

Raber took the lead from pole sitter Henry Joslyn off the line, and was followed past by McLaughlin. Joslyn then came under attack from Piszcyk. The pair ran side by side, but Piszcyk came out ahead. Ahead of them, the top two had broken away, but Piszcyk and Joslyn built a gap of their own to the rest of the pack.

That gap was undone when Harri Reynolds found himself in the gravel. The JHR Developments run driver was able to get going again, but not before the safety car was called out. 

Racing resumed with three quarters of the race remaining. The top two tried to break away again as McLaughlin in second received a five-second time penalty for exceeding the track limits. The Hitech driver tried to find a way past Raber in order to build a gap to the rest of the field that mitigated the penalty, but the fight only allowed Piszcyk to draw onto the back of the leaders.

In the following laps, more penalties for exceeding the track limits were applied. The race leader Raber and fourth in the order Joslyn were among the penalised drivers.

Further back down the order, Lloyd and Bergstrom had spent the second-half of the race battling for position just outside the top 10. The two came together and ended up into the gravel. The clash brought an early end to the race and denied the leaders a chance to pull away from Piszyck.

Tommy Harfield and Martin Molnar were promoted to second and third place as a result of the penalties, while Raber, McLaughlin and Joslyn dropped to seventh, ninth and 10th position in the final classification.

Thomas Bearman, Cole Hewetson and Ella Lloyd were also penalised. Bearman dropped from ninth to 11th place, while Hewetson double penalty totalling 15 seconds meant he went from 13th to 18th classified.

Race results (18 laps)