The final minutes of today’s ROKIT British F4 certified by FIA Snetterton qualifying session saw a flurry of slashed times as drivers bested, again and again, the fastest qualifying time in a tense and tight battle for pole position. Five different drivers held provisional pole before Dion Gowda (Rodin Carlin) secured the fastest time with a lap of 1:47.415. The time beats the previous British F4 lap record, aided by the weather conditions and track resurfacing since last season; 17 of the 22 drivers bettered the 2022 qualifying record, all within 0.8s of the pole time. Gowda is the third driver in three events to claim pole position and the Omologato Pole Position Award.
The fastest times set the grid for tomorrow’s live ITV4 Round 9 in which Kanato Le’s Hitech Pulse-Eight will line-up alongside Gowda, with standings leader Sharp (Rodin Carlin) in third and Rookie Gabriel Stilp (Hitech Pulse-Eight) in fourth.
Gowda also set the second fastest time in qualifying, putting him on pole position for Saturday afternoon’s Round 7. Sharp completed the all-Rodin Carlin front-row while a Hitech Pulse-Eight pairing of Kanato Le and local Will Macintyre qualified to take row two for Snetterton’s Race 1. Josh Irfan (Rodin Carlin) was the highest qualified Rookie, starting from eighth overall.
Round 7 however didn’t unfold as planned. Incidents in the opening lap led to a safety car and then a red flag. The restarted race then suffered a further incident with a car damaging the barrier too badly to be repaired in time to restart the race due to a circuit curfew. The race was declared null and void and will be rerun at Donington Park on 26-27 August.
Live on ITV4 – Snetterton racing on free to air TV can be seen from 10:45 on ITV4, with live broadcast of British F4 Race 2 scheduled to start at 12.05 and Race 3 at 16.25.
