F4 British Championship

Perfect Pull Wins Opening Race, but Drops Out of Title Fight

2 Mins read
Credit: Jakob Ebrey Ebrey Photography

A fantastic first lap overtake saw James Pull clinch his second win of the year. The F4 British Championship racer was undeterred by the title battle going on behind.

Max Fewtrell found himself promoted to pole after Jamie Caroline was disqualified from qualifying. His car was found to have a “technical non-compliance” seeing his times taken away from him and a 10 second penalty implemented.

The field bunched up at the start as Pull got the better getaway, elbowing his team-mate into second. The best start though was seen by Sennan Fielding. The JHR Developments driver leaped from eighth to fourth behind Luis Leeds who maintained third.

A safety car was deployed after Billy Monger veered off at an angle in the final sector. The boards came out, but, unaware of the accident, the drivers continued to race with Rafa Martins getting back in front of Fielding. Elsewhere, championship contender, Devlin DeFrancesco also retired.

The race continued but Leeds didn’t. The TRS Arden machine was clearly struggling and he dropped to the back at the restart. He slowly regained ground, but it was clear his car was not well.

While the gap was opening slightly, the top four started to break away with Pull stretching his advantage over Fewtrell. Fortunately for the 17-year-old, he had Martins in between himself and main rival Fielding. This didn’t last long though with Fielding taking third after eight laps.

Ayrton Simmons led the best-of-the-rest race as the ever quick Petru Florescu was up to sixth. Florescu had just set the fastest lap and was all over the rookie with the race entering its final stages.

On the final lap Fielding had caught up and sold Fewtrell a dummy into the first corner. The Carlin driver couldn’t respond and was forced to finish behind the experienced racer. He almost lost out on a podium too as Martins went side-by-side across the line.

Nothing could stop Pull though. While he may have won the race, results elsewhere meant that he has dropped out of the championship battle. It was only his second win of the year, in a season of consistency.

Behind the top four, Simmons held on to fifth and took the rookie win as a result, with Florescu behind. Caroline came from the back of the grid to claim a remarkable seventh, giving him reverse grid pole for race two. The top ten was rounded out by Alex Quinn, Jack Butel and Leeds.

Credit: Nick Smith / TheImageTeam.com
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