The race for the 2025 Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by FIA saw more twists and turns play out today as Ary Bansal and Fionn McLaughlin kept their cool to claim a win apiece at Zandvoort.
Closing out what was an action-packed weekend for the UK’s premier single-seater series while racing in the Netherlands, Bansal (Fortec Motorsport) became the tenth different winner of the season in race two, before McLaughlin (Hitech TGR) then extended his championship points lead with victory in a frenetic finale.
Race two – the weekend’s partially reversed grid contest – kicked off proceedings on Sunday and it resulted in Bansal claiming a maiden British F4 win, as he reigned supreme ahead of Rodin Motorsport’s duo of Adam Al Azhari and Ella Lloyd.
The bout began in dramatic fashion as Xavier Avramides (Hitech TGR) and Esmee Kosterman (JHR Developments) brought out a red flag following an accident on the opening lap, while Chloe Chong (Rodin Motorsport) and Yuhao Fu (Xcel Motorsport) were also in strife.
As a testament to the safety of the Tatuus T-421 chassis, all four drivers were able to emerge unscathed, and following a swift clear-up by circuit officials, the field lined up on the grid once more for a slightly shortened race restart.
Blasting away from pole position, Bansal was wheel-perfect on the run down to the first corner, but behind him all eyes were on the trio of Lloyd, Al Azhari and Chase Fernandez (Xcel Motorsport) as they each made emboldened starts to move up the order.
Fernandez would sadly fall by the wayside on the exit of turn one which allowed Thomas Bearman (Hitech TGR) back into second place; and he soon set off after Bansal, making a brave lunge a few corners later – only for the door to be slammed shut on him by the Indian driver.
In his attempt to take top spot, Bearman picked up front wing damage, and as the race wore on he would tumble down the order, his only consolation an extra point having secured the race’s fastest lap. His demise allowed Bansal to break clear, whilst Al Azhari and Lloyd scrapped for second and third.
Welsh ace Lloyd did manage to find a way past her team-mate in the closing stages, but the positions would ultimately be reversed post-race after the F1 Academy driver was handed a five-second time penalty for a jump start.
Behind the top three, Jimmy Piszcyk (Rodin Motorsport) enjoyed a relatively trouble-free race to finish in fourth, whilst an almighty battle for the remaining spots inside the top ten played out behind him.
Tommy Harfield (Chris Dittmann Racing) and Ethan Jeff-Hall (Argenti Motorsport) emerged at the head of the pack to finish fifth and sixth, while title protagonists McLaughlin and Martin Molnár (Virtuosi Racing) were hot on their heels in seventh and eighth.
Both drivers found themselves in the thick of the action, with McLaughlin surviving a clash with Fortec Motorsport’s Henry Joslyn late on. Molnár, meanwhile, had dropped down to as low as 13th at one stage, before he managed to claw his way back up the order.
Completing the top ten was Rookie runner-up Theo Palmer (Xcel Motorsport) and August Raber (Argenti Motorsport).
In the third and final race of the championship’s overseas foray, Red Bull Junior McLaughlin claimed his most pivotal victory of the season, having contended with multiple restarts to triumph in race three, all while his chief championship rival Molnár failed to score.
Starting from pole position, virtue of his superlative lap in qualifying, the Irishman immediately covered off Molnár as the lights went out, but the red flag soon neutralised the action as the stricken Chris Dittmann Racing car of Charlie Edge needed to be recovered following a crash.
McLaughlin held firm out front as racing got back underway, but it wasn’t long before the race-defining moment occurred behind him as Molnár and Al Azhari came to blows. The contact resulted in Al Azhari hitting the tyre wall and Molnár visiting the pit lane with race-ending damage.
Their demise promoted Piszcyk and Jeff-Hall to second and third, but they could do nothing to stop McLaughlin from triumphing, especially when the race came to a premature end when Emma Felbermayr (Virtuosi Racing) stopped on track.
McLaughlin, Piszcyk and Jeff-Hall occupied the top three positions with Lloyd, Harfield, Fernandez, Bearman, Joslyn, Raber and Oleksandr Savinkov (Virtuosi Racing) rounding out the top ten.
McLaughlin further cemented his championship position, having scored an additional point for the race’s fastest lap.
Leaving Zandvoort, McLaughlin leads Molnár and Piszcyk in the Drivers’ Championship and also heads the Rookie Cup, while Hitech TGR have maintained their advantage in the Teams’ Cup. At the top of the Challenge Cup standings, Harfield continues to lead the way.
Next up for the Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by FIA is a visit to Knockhill in Scotland for Rounds 19, 20 & 21 on August 16-17.
Sunday’s two races at the Fife venue will be broadcast live on free-to-air television in the UK on ITV4 and ITVX, while the action will be live-streamed outside the UK on the championship’s official YouTube channel..