British F4: Hanna makes it a clean sweep of wins at British Grand Prix

After taking victory yesterday in race 1, Salim Hanna would claim the win in race 2 in the non-championship round at the British Grand Prix.

Qualifying on Saturday morning saw Fionn McLaughlin claim pole for race 2, setting a new lap record at the circuit ahead of Tommy Harfield. McLaughlin’s championship rival Martin Molnár claimed third in qualifying while Hanna sat in fourth ahead of Thomas Bearman.

On the formation lap, Adam Al Azhari would spin but would luckily get back going meaning the race start could carry on normally. Hanna would get an excellent start and immediately get on the back of McLaughlin as he would try to and make a move on the opening lap with an attempted move around the outside of Copse, but McLaughlin would defend well throughout. Molnár would drop a few places back in the opening lap allowing Harfield, Bearman and Campbell-Pilling to get by.

On the second lap, Hanna would try to attack McLaughlin in Brooklands and once more in Copse, but the car placement of the defending Red Bull Junior would be a difficult driver to pass. Harfield would start to get involved with this fight for 1^st, attacking Hanna giving a brief bit of breathing space to McLaughlin. Meanwhile, behind them Bearman and Campbell-Pilling would fight for 4^th place before Bearman would go off the road at Luffield dropping him to 7^th behind Jeff-Hall and Molnár as well.

Back up front, McLaughlin would try to defend once more in Copse, but Hanna would finally make his way by on the exit of the corner and just before entering Maggots and Becketts. Things would go from bad to worse for McLaughlin over the next lap as Harfield would take advantage of McLaughlin’s attention being firmly on Hanna to swoop by himself for second place, while Campbell-Pilling would also charge by the championship leader into the final podium spot.

Molnár would make his way by Jeff-Hall to find himself in the top 5 and right behind his championship rival. Jeff-Hall would continue to fall back after dropping another position to Bearman and then Bansal. A five way fight down the Hanger straight would see Ella Lloyd go down the inside of August Raber into Stowe and was coming through the field to be on the fringes of a top 10.

A battle into Brooklands between the two championship leaders would see Molnár get by McLaughlin who certainly was beginning to struggle at this stage as he fell behind teammate Bearman who looked to be quite consistently running at the top end of the field. McLaughlin would end up calling it a day at the end of the lap coming into the pits after what looked to be a strong race 1 the day prior.

What was the battle for 11^th before McLaughlin retired now became the fight for 10^th as Raber and Lloyd continued to scrap for position, but Lloyd done an excellent job of defending position and was right on the back of the two cars in front. Lloyd would try and make a move into turn 1 after a great run through the final corner and would fly past Piszcyk with great commitment from both through the corner.

The battle for 4^th between Molnár and Bearman would see Bearman make the move up the inside onto the Wellington straight which set him up nicely for a move into Brooklands to take 4^th place away from Molnár. Further back, Robinson and Lloyd would fight for 9^th place as the pair were separated by almost nothing, but Robinson would just about make his way by into Brooklands and Luffield before having to fight off Lloyd into Copse. Robinson would make one final move to get by Oleksandr Savinkov for 8^th place on the penultimate lap.

Up front, Hanna would come home to take victory by quite a convincing margin ahead of Harfield and Campbell-Pilling who round out the podium, Bearman would finish in 4^th ahead of Molnár who rounds out the top 5. Bansal would take home 6^th ahead of Jeff-Hall, Robinson, Savinkov and Lloyd who round out the top 10.