2024 British F4 Esports Championship contenders Henry Moore and Graham Carroll had an event to forget at Silverstone, as the pair clashed in the reversed grid second race.
In what was quickly becoming a common theme in the 2024 British F4 Esports Championship, Guild Academy’s Henry Moore and Scuderia Ferrari HP Esports Team’s Graham Carroll racked up a glut of points during Round 4’s double-header at Oulton Park, with the title increasingly looking like it was headed in their direction.
Despite Matt Caruana’s absence from the Cheshire-based event, the Mensah Racing Driven By Us driver remained in third position in the title race, some 98 points adrift of Moore in first, and seemingly out of the reckoning.
Despite the respectful battling of Moore and Carroll thus far, Round 5 at Silverstone’s Grand Prix layout would prove to be a rambunctious affair, with the title protagonists finding themselves embroiled in a chaotic Race 2 incident that may well have big championship repercussions.
Race 1
Moore bossed qualifying for the third round on the trot, with Carroll once again sharing the front row, just over a tenth of a second behind. Joseph Loake, driving for the Aston Martin Aramco Esports Team, was a fine third, in what was something of a departure from his usual FIA Formula 3 machinery.
Moore got off the line quickly, with Carroll slotting in behind through the first sequence of turns. A huge incident further back saw Caruana rear-ended by William Chadwick after the former spun on the Woodcote kerbs.
For the latter, it was the third major incident in as many rounds, likely putting an end to both drivers’ championship challenge.
Heading towards Stowe on lap three, Carroll drafted past Moore for the lead, with Moore returning the favour on lap five. Loake was in close attendance but subsequently dropped two positions at The Loop after Pablo Espes of Willaims Esports Academy forced an opening, also allowing his Williams Esports stablemate Moreno Sirica through.
The leading pack of six were now locked in a slipstreaming battle for the lead, with Espes maneuvering his way into second as Carroll attempted to hold off the advances of Loake.
Heading onto the final lap, Espes was right on Moore’s gearbox, with the battle for the final podium slot far from finished. In fact, Sirica, Loake and Carroll began the final tour side-by-side, with Loake holding on for third. Carroll overtook Sirica for fourth, but lost ground to Moore in the championship as the young Englishman held off Espes to claim victory.
Race 2
The reversed grid draw saw 11th place Elias Raikaa claim pole position for Race 2, with few predicting the kind of chaos we were about to witness.
Raikaa cleared off out front as the pack behind engaged in some hairy two and three-wide battling. Carroll and Moore failed to make significant progress in the early reckoning, but worse was to follow at the start of lap two.
Carroll’s Ferrari team-mate Gergo Baldi found himself sandwiched into the high-speed Abbey curve, which bunched the pack up behind – including Moore and Carroll. Baldi sustained race-ending damage by clashing with Guild Esports’ Leo Brown, eventually retiring at Luffield.
The action continued through the rest of the lap, with Carroll desperately trying to keep Moore at bay with a visibly hobbled car. Chadwick pulled an outside move on the Scot heading into Club, but the pair tangled.
Guild’s Leo Brown tried to go around the outside of stablemate Moore in the aftermath but effectively pinned him against the recovering Carroll, causing the two main championship protagonists to collide, with Carroll’s car heading skyward.
It was a clumsy sequence of corners from the British F4 Esports field, and it would sadly set the tone for the incident-packed race.
Out front, Raikaa had been caught by Williams Esports Academy’s Matthijs van Erven, with the pair enjoying a two-second gap to the podium fight behind; including Loake, Williams Esports’ Alexander Spetz and Sirica, Aston Martin’s Conor Muir and Guild Esports’ Remy Gilbert.
More incidents in the midfield led to just 17 cars running at mid-distance, as van Erven encountered tyre issues and fell into the clutches of Loake, losing second place in the process. On the final lap, van Erven would clash with his WIlliams Esports stablemate Sirica, gifting Sptez the podium at the line. No doubt the team debrief was a frosty affair.
BS+ Compeition’s Raikaa would take an assured victory, with Joseph Loake claiming a double podium from Round 5.
The chaos of Silverstone sees Henry Moore extend his lead to Graham Carroll at the top of the championship, with Carroll’s Ferrari Esports team heading the Teams’ points.
Tune in to the next round from Knockhill on the 13th of November, broadcast live on iRacing’s YouTube channel.
Images courtesy of RC Sim Photography (Rhys Caryl)
Article written by Ross McGregor for Traxion.gg
