Lando Norris claimed his first BRDC Formula 4 Autumn Trophy victory after his main competition crashed out while leading the race. This left the sixteen year old to calmly cruise to victory in front of a depleted gird.
The five car grid all got off the line cleanly with Harrison Scott quickly taking the lead and almost pulling out a second to pole sitter Norris after the first lap. It would be Scott who took the advantage in the early part of the race, setting two consecutive fastest laps.
However; the gap continued to fluctuate over the next few laps as Norris pulled back the advantage to under a second, thanks to a mistake from Scott at Druids. Meanwhile behind; The battle for third intensified as Sisa Ngebulana held on to third
Having started ahead, Ngebulana soon lost his position to the out of position Ben Barnicoat. Despite this the HHC Motorsport driver fought back and held him off for a number of laps even staying ahead when he ran wide at Graham Hill bend.
The biggest drama of the race came after 10 laps, when Scott ran wide at Clearways crashing into the wall and bringing out the safety car. With Norris two seconds behind, it seemed likely that this was down to a racing error, rather than from any pressure behind.
Norris made a good restart and continued to extend his advantage over the course of the race. He would remain untroubled until he took the chequered flag with an advantage of thirteen seconds.
The second half of the race would focus on Ngebulana as he looked to stay ahead of the feisty Barnicoat. Sadly for the audience, they were robbed of another close battle as a mistake by the South African saw him drop to fourth.
While Barnicoat escaped up the road, Ngebulana’s attention quickly turned to Al Faisal Al Zubair‘s third place. Al Zubair continued his great defence to keep third for a number of laps before Ngebulana got a good run out of Graham Hill Bend to take the final podium spot with five laps to go.
Norris took the win from Barnicoat, while Sisa was unable to close the gap after making it past Al Zubair, meaning he finished a further eight seconds behind.
Despite crashing early on, Scott still set the fastest lap and thus, will be on pole for the final race of the day ahead of race winner Norris. Meanwhile Ngebulana and Barnicoat fill up the second, with Al Zubair at the back.
