In a wet Race 2, Yuanpu Cui (Phinsys by Argenti) claimed his maiden win in the ROKiT British F4 Championship certified by the FIA this morning at Snetterton.
The Chinese driver started second, next to Leo Robinson (JHR Developments) in Pole Position for the reverse Top 12 grid. Mika Abrahams (Hitech Pulse-Eight) and Ella Lloyd (JHR Developments) started alongside each other in the second row.
Yuanpu Cui (Phinsys by Argenti) got the jump over Robinson (JHR Developments) off the start with Abrahams (Hitech Pulse-Eight) moving into second. James Higgins and Alex Ninovic from Rodin Motorsport showed their pace early on, as the pair moved forward from their starting positions, Ninovic making up six spots on lap one alone.
Cui continued to show his pace out front, quickly extending his lead out to 5.4 seconds after two laps of racing. Meanwhile, the battle was on for the remaining spots on the podium as the track showed no signs of drying.
The safety car came out with nine minutes left on the clock, with Xcel Motorsport’s Zack Scoular stranded off the track, bunching the field back together. As the race resumed, this brought Jack Sherwood (Rodin Motorsport) and Deagen Fairclough (Hitech Pulse-Eight) back into the mix.
Across the line, it was Yuanpu Cui (Phinsys by Argenti) followed by Sherwood and Fairclough rounding out the top three. Joel Bergstrom (JHR Developments) joined Cui on the Rookie Cup podium with Rowan Campbell-Pilling (Phinsys by Argenti) in third.
The sun came out just in time for Race 3 which saw the whole field set out on slicks. Pole sitter Alex Ninovic (Rodin Motorsport) and Deagen Fairclough (Hitech Pulse-Eight) once again met on the front row. JHR Development’s Joel Bergstrom and Rodin Motorsport’s Jack Sherwood started out of third and fourth.
As the lights went out, Ninovic got ahead of Fairclough off the line with the pair fighting hard across the first half of the lap. Fairclough ran wide, collecting a sign-off to the side of the straight causing damage and resulting in a pit stop to replace the damage.
The safety car was subsequently called due to the stranded Leo Robinson (JHR Developments) on lap one and when racing got underway with ten minutes left on the clock, it was Alex Ninovic who led the field for the remainder of the race until a premature end due to the race following a torrential downpour with just over five minutes remaining on the clock.
It was a Rodin Motorsport podium lockout with Jack Sherwood and James Higgins joining Alex Ninovic on the podium.
Joel Bergstrom took his second Rookie Cup win of the weekend with Rowan Campbell-Pilling and Martin Molnar (Virtuosi Racing) in second and third.
Deagan Fairclough and Alex Ninovic each secured an extra point for setting the Motul Fastest laps in Races 2 and 3 respectively.
Alex Berg (Fortec Motorsport) was awarded this weekend’s Pirelli Hardest Charger Award for the most overtakes across Races 1 and 3, making up a combined 14 places and earning a set of Pirelli P Zero tyres for testing.
The next round of the ROKiT British F4 Championship will take place at Hampshire’s Thruxton circuit on 8-9 June with Sunday’s action due to be broadcast live on ITV4.
