F4 British Championship

Casper Stevenson scores race one pole after fierce battle with Browning and O’Sullivan at Croft

2 Mins read
Credit: Jakob Ebery Photography

Argenti Motorsport’s Casper Stevenson claimed his first pole position of the 2020 British F4 Championship at Croft to continue what has been an exceedingly impressive purple patch for the driver currently sitting in third in the championship, lining up just ahead of title leader Luke Browning and Carlin’s Zak O’Sullivan.

As the light went green at the end of the pit lane to begin this shortened Croft weekend, it was Arden Motorsport’s Roman Bilinski that ventured out on track first closely followed by the other 11 competitors onto the 3.2km circuit. With temperature’s as low as 10 degrees ambient and 12 degrees track temp, the cars would be preparing carefully for fast laps, with an addition of a strong wind.

With 15 minutes to go, the first representative times were coming in, with championship leader Luke Browning setting an early 1:21.180 to go over seven tenths clear of James Hedley after setting purple sectors through all the timing loops around the track.

Casper Stevenson was running in third after a very strong and consistent set of results for the British F4 scholarship winner. Returnee Rafael Villagomez was now running in second as the Mexican rookie is back after performing double duty with the French F4 Championship in 2020.

Zak O’Sulllivan was beginning to set purple sectors in pursuit of Browning’s lap time, with the championship rival coming within two and a half tenths behind the Fortec Motorsport pace setter.

Abbi Pulling would later move up to second place after a storming lap as the times were beginning to tumble, but to was still Browning that was the early leader in the first half on this 20 minute qualifying session. O’Sullivan would go fastest, with the Carlin man going just seven hundredths faster than Browning as the title rivals were beginning to trade blows for race one pole position.

Roman Bilinksi was the fastest of the Arden runners with just seven minutes to go, with the young Brit coming within a tenth of O’Sullivan’s effort, and quite a distance ahead of his team mates of Alex Connor and Frederick Lubin.

Luke Browning regained his fastest time with a few minutes to go, pulling over a tenth ahead of O’Sullivan as Casper Stevenson also jumped into the top three after a fairly low key beginning to the session, and would later set an identical time to Browning but by virtue of setting the time first, would be on provisional pole position for Argenti Motorsport.

And at the chequered flag it was Stevenson that took his first pole position ahead of Luke Browning and Carlin’s Zak O’Sullivan, with Roman Bilinski, Abbi Pulling and Frederick Lubin rounding out the top six.

1Casper StevensonArgenti Motorsport1:19.536
2Luke BrowningFortec Motorsport+ 0.040
3Zak O’SullivanCarlin+ 0.099
4Roman BilinskiArden Motorsport+ 0.327
5Abbi PullingJHR Developments+ 0.405
6Frederick LubinArden Motorsport+ 0.414
7James HedleyJHR Developments+ 0.422
8Alex ConnorArden Motorsport+ 0.428
9Christian MansellCarlin+ 0.433
10Rafael VillagomezFortec Motorsport+ 0.578
11Mathias ZagazetaCarlin+ 0.816
12Reema Juffali Argenti Motorsport+ 1.204

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British Formula 4 correspondent and occasional F1 reporter for The Checkered Flag.
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