Phinsys by Argenti’s Aiden Neate set the quickest time across both ROKiT F4 British Championship certified by FIA practice sessions held at Croft Circuit, Yorkshire today (24 June).
The 16-year-old was third quickest in the morning session topped by Carlin’s Ugo Ugochukwu, but stormed beneath the McLaren junior’s benchmark time after lunch to register a 1:17.246 around the 2.1-mile North Yorkshire venue and claim the early bragging rights.
Championship leader Alex Dunne (Hitech GP) and Williams Academy driver Oliver Gray (Carlin) were also able to get beneath Ugochukwu’s best lap, and ended the day in second and third respectively, with the American eventually fourth.
The third and final F1 junior, Mercedes-AMG protégé Daniel Guinchard, steered his Argenti challenger to the fifth fastest time, that quintet blanketed by a mere 0.25 seconds on the timesheets, setting up a thrilling fight for the Omologato Pole Position at 10:25 (BST) on Saturday morning.
Eduardo Coseteng’s overtaking prowess – 19 positions in all – earned him the Pirelli Hardest Charger Award at Oulton Park, and a solid run to sixth today will fuel the Filipino racer’s belief that he can head into the summer break on a high – and with a maiden win in Britain’s FIA Formula 4 series.
His team-mate Oliver Stewart was eighth behind Louis Sharp (Carlin), who was among the pace-setters in the morning but had his afternoon running cut short with an off-track excursion at Sunny Out, bringing out the red flags.
Adam Fitzgerald (Argenti) was ninth, with Joseph Loake leading JHR Developments team-mates Georgi Dimitrov and Noah Lisle in 10th, 11th and 12th. Michael Shin (Virtuosi) was next ahead of namesakes Edward (Virtuosi) and Joel Pearson (Chris Dittmann Racing), the runners completed by Hitech’s Daniel Mavlyutov.
Qualifying kicks off the competitive action at 10:25 on Saturday morning, with the first of three races to follow at 13:45. Race two, held at 17:15 that evening, features the partially-reversed grid, with the top ten flipped from qualifying.
Race three, live on ITV4, gets underway at 13:50 on Sunday. To view the full results from practice, click here.