F4 British Championship

JHR Developments rookie Matthew Rees takes British F4 pole position at rain soaked Thruxton

2 Mins read
Credit: Jakob Ebery Photography

A deluge of wet weather greeted the British F4 drivers for the opening qualifying session of the 2021 season at Thruxton, but sadly without Richardson Racing’s Georgi Dimitrov, who was forced to miss this weekend’s racing on doctor’s orders.

With the session getting ever faster as the cars on track were shifting the standing water, it was all about who could set the last lap as drivers scrambled across the line just before the chequered flag fell, and it was a tight battle up front.

But ultimately, as we hit the end of the 20 minute session it was rookie Matthew Rees that braved the conditions and took pole position for race one ahead of second season and de facto JHR Developments team leader Abbi Pulling, with other JHR team mates of Mckenzy Cresswell and Joseph Loake in third and fourth respectively in what was a dominant performance for the Derbyshire squad.

Japan’s Dougie Bolger scored an impressive fifth place on his Carlin debut, with Fortec Motorsport’s Oliver Gray being the meat in the sandwich between two Carlins in sixth, as Kai Askey qualified in seventh in what was an overall impressive session for the rookie drivers.

The next best second season driver was Matias Zagazeta down in eighth place for his new team at Argenti Motorsport, with James Hedley just behind in ninth and reigning Formula Nordic champion Joel Granfors in tenth.

Carlin new boy Roman Bilinski, who will be hoping for championship glory in 2021 starts down in eleventh place, with Thai driver, F4 UAE podium finisher and Carlin team mate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak joining him on the sixth row in twelfth place, a full second behind the pole sitting time of Matthew Rees.

Further down the order it was Arden Motorsport’s Zak Taylor in thirteenth, with Argenti rookies Marcos Flack and Eduardo Coseteng in fourteenth and fifteenth place respectively, and Thomas Ikin down in sixteenth place but crucially taking the much talked about race two reverse grid pole position.

Race one is scheduled for 3:25pm this afternoon, with a further two races tomorrow and broadcast live on ITV4.

Pos.DriverTeamTime
1Matthew Rees (R)JHR Developments1:22.131
2Abbi PullingJHR Developments1:22.237
3Mckenzy Cresswell (R)JHR Developments1:22.458
4Joseph LoakeJHR Developments1:22.469
5Dougie Bolger (R)Carlin1:22.561
6Oliver Gray (R)Fortec Motorsport1:22.700
7Kai Askey (R)Carlin1:22.758
8Matias ZagazetaArgenti Motorsport1:22.887
9James HedleyFortec Motorsport1:22.965
10Joel GranforsFortec Motorsport1:22.975
11Roman BilinskiCarlin1:23.040
12Tasanpol InthraphuvasakCarlin1:23.165
13Zak TaylorArden Motorsport1:23.346
14Marcos Flack (R)Argenti Motorsport1:23.402
15Eduardo Coseteng (R)Argenti Motorsport1:23.691
16Thomas Ikin (R)Arden Motorsport1:24.927

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