Virtuosi’s Martin Molnar quickest in British F4 test day at Silverstone

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Virtuosi Racing’s Martin Molnar was quickest in British Formula 4’s pre-season test day on Silverstone’s National layout on Thursday this week.

There were two sessions, the first starting in the morning and finishing two-and-a-half hours later in the afternoon while the second ran for three-and-a-half hours later in the day.

Reigning Ginetta Junior champion and Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Ethan Jeff-Hall was quickest for Argenti Motorsport in session one, setting a 54.508s late in his last run to pip Hitech GP’s Thomas Bearman and Leo Robinson by 0.037 and 0.082 seconds respectively.

Chris Dittmann Racing’s Tommy Harfield and Molnar were also within 0.2s of him, with the top 19 covered by less than half a second.

Joel Bergstrom had been the pacesetter early on, but the JHR Developments driver ended the session down in 15th. He was knocked off top spot for the last time 17 minutes in, when Robinson set a 54.893s. He lowered the pace five more times, and a 54.49s lap kept him in top spot for almost an hour-and-a-half before Jeff-Hall set his best.

Jeff-Hall, Bearman and CDR’s Charlie Edge failed to improve in session two, as the pace was lowered. JHR’s Esmee Kosterman was quickest at first, then Harfield brought the pace down into the 54s. After 12 minutes, Hitech’s Fionn McLaughlin usurped him, then Bearman went quickest.

Harfield responded 10 minutes later with two laps good enough for top spot, but he was then demoted again as Xcel Motorsport’s Chase Fernandez recorded a 54.552s early in the session’s second hour. Once again, Harfield had more in hand and set a new 54.5s benchmark.

That went unbeaten for half an hour before successive laps from Molnar brought the day’s fastest lap down to 54.332s.

Jeff-Hall and Bearman were down in sixth and 10th, only 0.18s and 0.273s off the pace, which put them sixth and eighth overall for the day. Once again under half a second covered the top 19.

In the off-season, the FAT Karting League for electric karts co-founded by Felipe Massa’s former F1 engineer Rob Smedley announced it will a run world finals event that will award the top driver in the junior class a fully-funded F4 seat for 2026. The intention is this will be in British F4.

Test results