It was Jamie Caroline who took the first F4 British Championship win of the year, after a dramatic fight with Alex Quinn in the final laps at Brands Hatch Indy.
The win gives the Pirtek sponsored driver the momentum going into the rest of the weekend. He’ll also start on pole for the final race tomorrow, as well as seventh during the reverse grid encounter, due to 15 cars finishing the opening event.
As the lights went out, Caroline almost lost his lead due to excessive wheel spin, but held the position from Quinn, who made the best start from third. Linus Lundqvist followed him through into third, but was soon in trouble as he lost momentum after the first lap.
Lundqvist couldn’t defend from Oscar Piastri dropping four places. It got worse for the Swede who lost his rhythm and dropped outside the top ten, before diving into the pits.
It became a two-horse race with Quinn continuing to chase Caroline for the lead until the safety car came out, due to Lucas Alecco Roy’s crash at paddock hill bend.
Caroline dominated the restart, pulling out a 0.7 second gap to Quinn as they went back across the line. This continued to extend for a number of laps, before Quinn finally found his groove bringing the gap down to the leaders.
Quinn though was soon looking in the mirrors as teammate Oscar Piastri started to close in on the 17-year-old. Logan Sargeant had worked his way back to fourth, but failed the pressure the podium positions.
Despite Quinn’s best efforts, he was forced to settle for second as Caroline won the overall race by only 0.290 seconds. They were joined on the podium by Piastri, while Billy Monger won the Ford F4 Challenge Cup class.
Sargeant finished his first British race in fourth, an excellent effort from the former World Karting champion, while Patrik Pasma had a lonely romp to fifth.
Further back, Monger held on after a titanic race long battle with Ayrton Simmons for sixth. The second JHR Developments driver, Manuel Sulaiman finished eighth after holding off Oliver York. Meanwhile, Karl Massaad completed a lonely second half to the race in tenth.
