Hitech’s British F4 aces star on the big stage

The first event to feature every step of the FIA’s single-seater ladder gave our five-star team the chance to show off their skills to the wider world — and it started in the best possible way for current Wera Tools British F4 Championship leader, Fionn McLaughlin.

The Irishman delivered a superb lap around the 3.66-mile Formula 1 circuit, recording a best time of 2:00.832s to secure his second C1RCUIT Watches Pole Position Award of the year — by just 0.029s. To illustrate how competitive the session was, seven different teams filled the top seven positions.

However, the grid for Race 1 — held on Saturday afternoon — was determined by each driver’s second-fastest time, which meant Fionn lined up in fifth place. Three places behind him, Thomas started eighth — and was cheered on by an eager spectator, as brother Ollie Bearman watched from the pit lane.

It was an exciting opening lap as Fionn made a strong launch off the grid to claim a place, briefly lost it at The Loop, but retook the position at Luffield. When the race leader spun at Chapel, prompting the first Safety Car deployment, Fionn was up to third. Meanwhile, Thomas had also made a decent start and was battling for fourth when the race was neutralised.

On the restart, Leo Robinson — who had started 15th and was now up to 12th — pulled off a brilliant double pass at the final corner to break into the top ten. He kept pushing and finished ninth when the race’s second Safety Car was deployed. In the final classification, Fionn stood on the famous British GP podium in third place, Thomas was fifth, Leo ninth, Xavier Avramides 14th and F1 Academy racer Nina Gademan 16th.

It was an early start for the British F4 runners on Sunday morning, with their second invitational race taking place at 8:20am local time. Fionn — proudly in his Red Bull Junior Team colours — started from pole position, with Thomas lining up on the second row in fourth.

At the start, Fionn led away cleanly and controlled the field from the front. Thomas, despite running wide at Turn 3, held on to fourth as the nearly 30-car field thundered around the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in front of another large crowd.

Fionn defended his lead well in the opening laps, but on lap three he lost out on the run into Becketts, and dropped a few more places on the following tour. With his pace falling away, he pitted on lap six and was forced to retire with a gearbox issue.

He wasn’t the only Hitech driver to enter the pits — Xavier also stopped to change his left-rear tyre after picking up a puncture, and ultimately finished 24th, one place behind Nina. As in Race 1, Leo had a strong finish. After starting 16th, he picked off several rivals to climb to seventh — sadly dropping to P9 after a post-race penalty.

While battling for fourth, Thomas ran wide over the gravel coming out of Luffield and dropped two places falling to sixth, but he quickly made those positions back and made a brave move into the high-speed Becketts to take fourth — and was then promoted to third after a post-race penalty was applied to the car ahead. It was a dramatic end to a successful weekend.

The British F4 Championship resumes at another F1 venue later this month, with a trip to Zandvoort in the Netherlands on 26–27 July.