Smith holds off Stilp for British F4 Croft victory

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Sonny Smith held off Gabriel Stilp to win the reversed-grid British Formula 4 race at Croft. 

Stilp had a storming drive up through the field to challenge Smith for the victory in the closing stages of the race, but Smith put in a strong defence to retain the position. 

Behind them, Issac Barashi held off Jack Sherwood to take his first podium. 

Smith snatched the race lead off the line, jumping past pole sitter Kai Daryanani. The JHR Developments driver was already beginning to pull out a gap when the safety car was brought out after an incident for Noah Lisle at Tower Bend. 

Racing resumed with 10 minutes left on the clock, and Stilp was immediately on the attack. The Hitech driver had jumped from sixth to fourth before the safety car, aided by an off for Douwe Dedecker ahead. He dived past Jack Sherwood for third, before a small moment of contact sent Sherwood through the gravel. 

Stilp then attacked Daryanani moments later, with a move around the outside putting him up to second.  

Smith had a gap out front at this point, but Stilp rapidly closed onto the tail of the race leader. Stilp pushed for the race lead, but couldn’t find a way past and had to settle for second. 

Sherwood’s trip through the gravel had dropped him back to sixth, but he made quick work of passing James Piszcyk for fifth. A wide moment for Daryanani allowed him to come up to fourth and he quickly closed onto the tail of Barashi.  

Barashi defended well and held onto the podium finish, his first in British F4. 

Piszcyk finished fifth ahead of Daryanani and Deagen Fairclough, who climbed up from 15th on the grid. Aqil Alibhai, Dion Gowda and Gustav Jonsson completed the top 10. 

Race results (14 laps)