Ricky Collard retakes the championship lead as more bad luck and a jump start saw Dan Ticktum lose his chance of victory at the final race in Knockhill for the MSA Formula series.
The race started with two formation laps after Matheus Leist and James Pull, both stopped on their first formation lap. The start was delayed as Leist limped back to the pits and his compatriot was pulled off.
There was also a safety car period in the middle of the race as Petru Florescu was caught up in a five car tussle for the lower points. He collided with Josh Smith at the hairpin and broke his suspension, forcing him to stop in the middle of the track. Smith would recover to finish tenth.
Ticktum started on pole for the final race of the day, but would continue his string of bad luck. A jump start would land him a rather heavy, drive through penalty, which the Brit would take immediately. The rest of his race was about working his way as far up as possible.
Ticktum would take the drive through in the opening laps and had already worked his way up to tenth, by the time the first safety car came out. This had also left Collard to inherit the lead as he looked to defend from Colton Herta behind.
Collard would not run off like many had expected him to, and a poor penultimate lap would see him be caught by Herta in the closing stages. Despite this he kept his cool to win the final race and take the championship lead.
The other winner from the start had been Sennan Fielding, who continued his run of podiums by bringing the car home third in what was a lonely second half of the race, having broken away from the Arden cars behind.
Lando Norris had started towards the front, but did not have the opening lap he expected. He was passed by Collard and Herta into the hairpin on the first lap. He lost momentum and soon fell behind Fielding and later the Arden’s. Although he would stop the rot, it proved to be a tight competition with Norris only managing seventh off the line.
Enaam Ahmed continued his excellent run of form at Knockhill to finish fourth having defended from team mate Sandy Mitchell for much of the race, with the two drivers leading home Rafael Martins.
Behind Norris and rounding out the top eight was Ticktum who was involved in a dramatic fight with Tarun Reddy in the closing stages. Having disposed of the cars behind, Ticktum was unable to make his way past Reddy, with the Indian being forced off the track. He rejoined but Ticktum would block the approaching Smith, seeing the Racing Steps Foundation driver cut the chicane.
Reddy would retire as a result of damage, while Louise Richardson would beat Smith, as a result, into ninth place. Collard leaves Knockhill with a 9 point championship lead.
