A good start from Harri Newey ensured he kept the lead throughout to win his first BRDC Formula 4 race of the year at Donington. The HHC Motorsport driver made a good start from pole as his rivals faltered and was only challenged late on.
As the son of former Formula 1 designer Adrian Newey, the pressure has always been on the 17 year old, who lies third in the series. The win ensures he continues his run of podiums and catches up to Tom Jackson in the championship after the Chris Dittmann Racing driver struggled, losing ground after an error during the race.
The safety car free race ensured Newey would build up his lead in the early part of the race, before some excellent defensive driving saw him hold off team mate Will Palmer in the final laps as the championship leader continued to set a number fastest laps.
Palmer himself had made a poor start despite starting second and fell to sixth before the end of the first lap. Despite this, he spent the first half of the race working his way back up. The final move was on Omar Ismail who he managed to take in a daring move around the outside of Redgate.
Eventually taking third was Ameya Vaidyanathan, who inherited the position after the battle up the road saw the two contenders run wide. While Ciaran Haggerty took fourth after a quiet race in which he worked his way up from tenth.
Ismail had been on course for a podium, but came under increasing pressure from Chris Mealin behind. The two lost a number of positions on the final lap after they tangled leaving Ismail to cross the line in fifth and Mealin in seventh. The two were split by Jack Bartholomew.
In eighth overall was Jordan Albert who survived as best of the midfield ahead of Akhil Rabindra, while Jackson’s off from second had seen him drop to eleventh. He would only be able to cross the line in tenth having not been able to make progress.
It had been a notably poor race for Jack Lang. Having been a contender for pole, the Norfolk-born driver was punted off by Rodrigo Fonseca in the opening lap, ruining both of their chances.
