Browning lowers the benchmark in closely-matched final practice

Luke Browning continued his one-hundred percent record atop the timesheets in the second F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford EcoBoost practice session at Knockhill.
Once again, the Fortec Motorsport racer completed the most laps of the 1.26-mile Fife circuit, setting a best time of 49.402 seconds – just two tenths shy of Zane Maloney’s qualifying lap record – on his final flying effort to pip Carlin’s Zak O’Sullivan to top spot by 0.120s.
Argenti Motorsport’s Casper Stevenson put in another solid showing in third, 0.034 seconds ahead of JHR’s James Hedley as both look to maintain their recent podium-contending form.
The second Fortec challenger of Roberto Faria rounds out the top five, with the Brazilian also causing a red flag stoppage in the final 90 seconds of the session after an off on the exit of the Arnold Clark Chicane.
Matias Zagazeta (Carlin) caused the other, a 12-minute delay mid-session, after going off at the same corner and impacting the barriers.
Zagazeta’s team mate Christian Mansell was seventh quickest behind Arden’s Alex Connor, the top six covered by just 0.3 seconds once again as the margins narrow heading into qualifying.
That puts Mansell as the lead Rookie Cup entry once more, a tenth ahead of Fortec’s Rafael Villagomez, who put in another top-ten showing on his return after a week away fulfilling French F4 commitments.
Abbi Pulling (JHR) and Nico Pino (Argenti) round out the top ten; just 0.006 seconds would have promoted either ahead of Villagomez, highlighting the strength in depth of the field in Britain’s FIA Formula 4 series.
Roman Bilinski was next for Arden, two tenths ahead of Argenti’s Reema Juffali in 12th. Nathanael Hodgkiss bounced back from disappointment this morning with an incident-free run to 13th, and 21 valuable laps to catch up on lost time.
Frederick Lubin was 14th, with Zagazeta – tenth at the time of his incident before dropping back – rounding out the 15-car field.
Session Result – Free Practice 2
Pos. | Name | Team | Time | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Luke BROWNING | Fortec Motorsport | 49.402 | 23 |
2 | Zak O’SULLIVAN | Carlin | +0.120s | 21 |
3 | Casper STEVENSON | Argenti Motorsport | +0.162s | 23 |
4 | James HEDLEY | JHR Developments | +0.196s | 22 |
5 | Roberto FARIA | Fortec Motorsport | +0.327s | 21 |
6 | Alex CONNOR | Arden Motorsport | +0.392s | 19 |
7 | Christian MANSELL | Carlin | +0.637s | 21 |
8 | Rafael VILLAGOMEZ | Fortec Motorsport | +0.787s | 18 |
9 | Abbi PULLING | JHR Developments | +0.788s | 14 |
10 | Nico PINO | Argenti Motorsport | +0.794s | 22 |
11 | Roman BILINSKI | Arden Motorsport | +0.900s | 20 |
12 | Reema JUFFALI | Argenti Motorsport | +1.158s | 21 |
13 | Nathanael HODGKISS | JHR Developments | +1.286s | 21 |
14 | Frederick LUBIN | Arden Motorsport | +1.406s | 19 |
15 | Matias ZAGAZETA | Carlin | +5.345s | 4 |