Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic claimed the first C1RCUIT Pole Position of the 2024 ROKiT British F4 season in a dry qualifying session at Donington Park’s National circuit.
Ninovic’s advantage was just 0.013 of a second ahead of teammate James Higgins (Rodin Motorsport) in second in a tight, nip and tuck session under rain threatening skies. The second row of the grid was made up of returning drivers Kai Daryanani (Fortec Motorsport) and Deagen Fairclough (Hitech Pulse-Eight) in third and fourth place respectively.
In a close first qualifying session of the year, 17 drivers were within 0.5s of pole with 21 drivers within one second of Ninovic’s pole time.
Race 1 of the season and the Donington weekend, saw James Higgins (Rodin Motorsport) line up on pole, courtesy of his second-fastest Qualifying lap time being quicker than the field’s second-fastest time. He had Alex Ninovic (Rodin Motorsport) alongside him on the front row, however it was a fast starting Deagen Fairclough (Hitech Pulse-Eight) who got the best jump off the start, getting into the lead by turn one.
After taking the lead in a commanding fashion, Fairclough set about the task of extending his gap over the Rodin pairing of Higgins and Ninovic and by the end of lap 1, was already 1.487 seconds ahead.
Throughout the 20-minute race he would continue to drive away from the pack, eventually crossing the line 5.317 seconds in the lead before a red flag brought the race to premature end with little time left on the clock.
The fight was on for positions in the lower half of the top 10 early in the race, with ninth to 15th places being contested in a tight pack.
Yuanpu Cui (Phinsys by Argenti) showed his pace in Race One finishing fourth having started in ninth and earned the Rookie Cup win in the process.
Reza Seewooruthun (Hitech Pulse-Eight) finished fifth, with Jack Sherwood and Abbi Pulling (Rodin Motorsport) in sixth and seventh respectively, followed by Ella Lloyd (JHR Developments), Mika Abrahams (Hitech Pulse-Eight) and Bart Harrison (Chris Dittmann Racing) rounding out the top 10.
Joining Yuanpu Cui (Phinsys by Argenti) on the Rookie podium were Bart Harrison (Chris Dittmann Racing) in second and Rowan Campbell-Pilling (Phinsys by Argenti) in third.
Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Deagen Fairclough claimed the Motul Fastest Lap Award for Race 1.
Race Two and Three of the ROKiT British F4 Championship season opener will be held tomorrow at 0925 hours and 1345 hours with the latter broadcast live as part of the ITV4 coverage which commences at 1040 hours.
