British F4: Hanna takes victory in non-championship race 1 at British Grand Prix

The first of two British F4 races on the British Grand Prix weekend saw Salim Hanna take victory in an excellent drive.

The grid for race 1 would be set by using each drivers second fastest times in qualifying as opposed to the fastest times that would be used for race 2 on Sunday. Those times would see Hanna take pole for race 1 ahead of Ethan Jeff-Hall and Rowan Campbell-Pilling while Ary Bansal and Fionn McLaughlin would complete the top 5 on the grid for the race.

The race would get underway with Campbell-Pilling get the jump on Jeff-Hall to move up to second place. He wouldn’t sit in second for long either as he would make a dive on Hanna into Brooklands on the opening lap. Further back, Ella Lloyd would be spun round and to the back of the grid ending her chances at victory.

McLaughlin after a tough battle with Bansal would make his way by for 4^th before an error on the exit of Chapel would leave Campbell-Pilling spinning from the lead and down to the back of the grid. This put Hanna back into the lead ahead of Jeff-Hall and McLaughlin. Thomas Bearman would look to find a way by Tommy Harfield for fourth before both go off the circuit ending their brief skirmish on lap 2. Soon a Safety Car would be deployed to recover Campbell-Pilling’s car after his off on lap 1.

The race would get back under way with just under 15 minutes to go as Jeff-Hall would try to make an early challenge against Hanna before locking up and almost going into the back of the race leader. Hanna would need to continue to defend against Jeff-Hall and McLaughlin as he was kept honest throughout the restart. A battle between Martin Molnár and Bansal would allow Leo Robinson to make a double overtake at the final chicane in a similar move to what Lewis Hamilton done in 2022. The trio and August Raber would continue to fight heavily as they went through the first sector as Robinson managed to maintain the lead of the group.

Out front, the top 3 would pull away from the rest of the field pulling out a more than 2 second gap in the first couple of laps since the Safety Car. Bearman in 5^th would continue to put pressure on Harfield as they lose time to the front three.

Robinson would continue to make more places as he would go up to 8^th place passing Jimmy Piszcyk and was setting his sights on finishing a few places higher. A battle between Bansal and Molnár into Stowe would end in contact dropping Bansal out of the top 10 and into the clutches of Yuhao Fu.

McLaughlin would begin to drop off from Hanna and Jeff-Hall while falling back towards Harfield and Bearman in the final 5 minutes of the race while Molnár would make a move on Piszcyk to move up to 9^th before Piszcyk would drop a couple more places to Bansal and Fu.

The race long battle between Robinson, Molnár and Bansal would continue to be feisty as Bansal tried to make a move on Molnár but was unable to complete the move down the Wellington straight. Molnár would end up making a move on Robinson into Maggots and Becketts in an excellent move. Molnár would remain on a late charge as he would attempt to make a move around the outside of Copse on Adam Al Azhari for 7^th place.

On the penultimate lap of the race, a collision between Alsabah, Ingram Hill and Albag at Brooklands causing a Safety Car to end the race. This would leave Hanna to take victory ahead of Jeff-Hall and McLaughlin who rounds out the podium. Harfield and Bearman would finish 4^th and 5^th ahead of Palmer in 6^th and Molnár in 7^th while Al Azhari, Robinson and Fu would complete the top 10.