Rodin’s Adam Al Azhari becomes first-time F4 winner at Silverstone

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Adam Al Azhari became the fifth different winner of the British Formula 4 season in the reversed-grid race at Silverstone, marking his first victory in the category.

The Rodin Motorsport driver came through from third on the grid to take the lead in a handful of corners and held onto the position thereon.

A late safety car interruption put JHR Developments’ Rowan Campbell-Pilling back on his tail, but Al Azhari held him off once racing resumed.

Front row starters Xavier Avramides and Joel Bergstrom had a difficult opening lap, allowing Al Azhari, Campbell-Pilling and Chris Dittmann Racing’s Tommy Harfield to move up into the top three positions. They were able to break away slightly while battling with each other. 

By the race’s midpoint, their dicing had dialled down and the gap between them and the rest of the field grew. But an incident for JHR’s Bergstrom then brought the field back together again as it brought out the safety car.

Bergstrom had fallen all the way down to 11th by the end of the opening lap, and spent the next four laps trying to work his way forward. His car stopped and race came to an end on the entry to the loop section of the lap.

There were two laps left when the field returned to racing speeds, and Campbell-Pilling came under pressure from Harfield on the restart. He managed to shake him off, and had enough life in his tyres to push forward to fight Al Azhari on the final lap. Al Azhari did not put a wheel wrong through, and claimed victory by 0.574 seconds.

Behind the podium trio was Hitech GP’s Thomas Bearman, who spent most of the race leading the battle for fourth. His team-mate Avramides had briefly been in the fight but was shuffled backwards, allowing Fionn McLaughlin to take up the challenge to Bearman. The two Hitech drivers made slight contact while running side-by-side, sending McLaughlin into a spin. He was able to continue racing, but towards the back of the field.

In the race’s second half, Bearman was joined by Argenti Motorsport’s August Raber and Fortec Motorsports’ Henry Joslyn. The trio ran in a race of their own until the safety car period. On the restart, Raber could not find a way past Bearman, while Joslyn was under pressure from Ethan Jeff-Hall behind. Raber came home fifth, Joslyn held off Jeff-Hall, and Avramides finished eighth.

Race results (9 laps)