Fionn McLaughlin stretched his advantage at the top of the standings in the Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by FIA to 44.5 points after clinching his fourth win of the season in what was a frenetic opener around Knockhill.
While JHR Developments’ Rowan Campbell-Pilling crossed the line first, he was adjudged to have made a false start, and it was the Hitech TGR driver who ultimately claimed victory to reign supreme on his maiden race at Knockhill.
Arriving at the picturesque Fife venue at a critical junction in the 2025 campaign, the UK’s premier single-seater series delivered its closest qualifying session of the season to-date – with all 23 cars being covered by less than one second.
Multiple drivers would stake their claim in the battle for top spot over the course of a busy session, but it was Thomas Bearman (Hitech TGR) that laid down a marker the rest of the field couldn’t better to claim a first C1RCUIT Watches Pole Position Award.
Campbell-Pilling finished just 0.061s off the Oulton Park race winner’s benchmark time, whilst Ethan Jeff-Hall (Argenti Motorsport), Red Bull Junior McLaughlin and title contender Martin Molnár completed the top five.
Second fastest lap times determined the starting order for race one and that left Campbell-Pilling with a clear road ahead of him as the field took to the grid, however a false start quickly attracted an initial five second time penalty that was to be applied post-race.
Needing to break clear of the chasing pack to try and mitigate the pending time penalty, Campbell-Pilling wasted no time in establishing an early lead in the contest – but with the hard-charging McLaughlin behind him, he was never able to open up the necessary advantage required to secure the podium top step.
McLaughlin had made a flying start to the contest, quickly dispatching Bearman to move up to second on the opening lap, and he then set about maintaining a steady gap to Campbell-Pilling all the way to the finish, ultimately securing victory.
Despite losing a spot to McLaughlin – who also picked up an extra point for clinching the Lotus Fastest Lap and the Rookie Cup win – at the start, Bearman went on to enjoy a relatively trouble-free drive as he ran unchallenged to complete the podium in third.
Following the completion of the race, a review of Campbell-Pilling’s false start was carried out and the Clerk of the Course deemed his initial penalty should be rescinded and replaced with a ten-second penalty, dropping him behind Bearman.
While the top three were able to break clear over the course of the 20-lap bout, attention was firmly focused on a captivating battle for fourth place that was initially headed up by Australian talent Jimmy Piszcyk (Rodin Motorsport).
Coming under immense pressure from Jeff-Hall as soon as the race began, Piszcyk spent the first half of the encounter valiantly defending against the Mercedes F1 Junior, with Challenge Cup leader Tommy Harfield (Chris Dittmann Racing) and Molnár poised to take advantage of any errors ahead.
After running side-by-side on countless occasions, Jeff-Hall finally found a way past the defiant Piszcyk, and his feisty move opened the door enough for Harfield and Molnár to also swoop past.
Unfortunately for Harfield, a post-race penalty meant he ultimately finished seventh, with Piszcyk in sixth. Theo Palmer (Xcel Motorsport), Cole Hewetson (Xcel Motorsport) and Ary Bansal (Fortec Motorsport) rounded out the top 10 after Ella Lloyd (Rodin Motorsport), who crossed the line in ninth, also received a post-race penalty. The red flag brought the race to a premature end, following an incident on the start finish straight which saw Xcel’s Fu hit the barrier.
Races two and three of the Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by FIA at Knockhill are scheduled to take place at 10:35 and 15:55 respectively on Sunday, with both races forming part of ITV4 and ITVX’s free-to-air coverage that commences at 10:45 BST.
Both contests will also be streamed live on the championship’s YouTube channel for those watching outside the UK.
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