Robinson wins red-flagged reversed-grid British F4 race

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Leo Robinson won the reversed-grid British Formula 4 race at Knockhill as Deagan Fairclough extended his championship lead.

The race ended three minutes early as second-in-the-championship Alex Ninovic came to a stop just on the edge of the track and couldn’t get going again. He had already dropped down the order after a wide moment onto the grass, and was out of the points when the stoppage occurred.

Fairclough meanwhile had climbed up to sixth on track and was challenging Reza Seewooruthun for fifth. They were promoted to fifth and fourth respectively after a time penalty for Kai Daryanani.

At the front of the order, Daryanani had gotten the best start from second on the grid but couldn’t find a way past pole sitter Ella Lloyd. Lloyd, whose team put in a difficult overnight repair after the opening race of the weekend ended with her car upside-down, managed to hold off Daryanani and was beginning to pull away as Daryanani came under pressure from Leo Robinson.

Robinson quickly found a way past the Fortect driver and closed in on Lloyd. He managed to get alongside Lloyd and the hairpin and came through to take the race lead at the following corner.

Once ahead, Robinson was unstoppable. He put in a faultless drive and was 5.099s ahead when the red flag was thrown for Ninovic.

Daryanani tried to challenge Lloyd and stayed close behind her, but himself came under pressure from Yuanpu Cui. He crossed track limits too many times and was handed a five second penalty late in the race. With most of the field bunched close together, that dropped him down to eighth in the corrected timings.

Fairclough had a busy race, climbing up from 12th on the grid. He spent most of the race in a battle with Abbi Pulling and Jack Sherwood at the tail end of the top 10, with the trio swapping places multiple times. 

It wasn’t until late in the race that Fairclough managed to find a way past Pulling for what was then seventh, but after that he was the fastest driver on the track. He quickly passed Bart Harrison and was trying to find a way past Seewooruthun when the race came to an early end. 

Harrison took sixth ahead of Pulling and Daryanani. Sherwood and Martin Molnar completed the top 10.

Race results (19 laps)