Rodin’s Alex Ninovic fastest in British F4 practice at Silverstone

Photo: British F4

Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic was fastest in British Formula 4 free practice on Silverstone’s Grand Prix layout.

The first session of the day was scheduled to run for 45 minutes but instead lasted 53, and Chris Dittmann Racing’s Bart Harrison set the first flying lap almost 10 minutes in.

The pace quickly tumbled, with a more representative pace reached four minutes later as Hitech GP’s Reza Seewooruthun and Deagen Fairclough set 2m21s laptimes.

Almost 20 minutes after that Fairclough improved to 2m20.784s, then eventually he was beaten by Fortec Motorsport’s Nina Pothof who set a 2m20.719s. Seewooruthun knocked 0.441 seconds off that benchmark soon after, but Pothof responded by going 0.215s faster. By breaking into the 2m19s, Seewooruthun moved back ahead on his next lap, but then Pothof beat him by 0.022s.

A minute later both were demoted by Fairclough, who rocketed to the top with a 2m19.132s, and two laps later he set a 2m18.458s which would go unbeaten.

Both Seewooruthun and Pothof improved but ended up 0.916s and 1.114s behind in third and fourth, with Argenti Motorsport’s Rowan Campbell-Pilling ending FP1 as Fairclough’s closest rival but 0.408s off the pace. The top 11 were covered by 1.879s, and CDR’s series returnee Carrie Schreiner – an F1 Academy regular – was a huge 7.382s slower than Fairclough.

FP2 was delayed by rain, and despite the track being wet it was the faster session for all but three of the 23 drivers taking part.

In the first 10 minutes there was plenty of action, with Campbell-Pilling, Xcel Motorsport’s Zack Scoular, Rodin’s Abbi Pulling, Ninovic and James Higgins all spending time at the top before Fairclough set a 2m22.164s.

A few seconds later Seewooruthun lapped in the 2m21s, and two minutes after that Higgins was first into the 2m20s. Seewooruthun’s next two laps brought the pace down further, then Fairclough utilised his slipstream to set a 2m20.622s.

Ninovic and Higgins both posted 2m20.5s laps two minutes later, only for Fairclough to then set a new fastest lap three times in a row. At the session’s halfway mark he was still over 0.6s off the FP1 pace, and it took a while longer before FP2’s first sub-2m19s lap was set.

Pulling achieved the feat with a 2m18.670s, and Ninovic later became the fastest driver overall in practice with a 2m18.162s. After that there were three others who beat the FP1 benchmark, including Fairclough who improved to 2m17.273s in third. Higgins was 0.095s off Ninovic in second, and Pulling was 0.248s behind in fourth. A second covered the top eight.

Free practice results