British F4: McLaughlin claims Race 1 victory at Knockhill

The first British F4 round of the Knockhill race weekend saw Fionn McLaughlin take the victory to further extend his championship lead over the rest of the field.

After starting from third on the grid, McLaughlin would manage to find his way past his rivals to take victory in Race 1 of the British F4 weekend passing both his teammate Thomas Bearman and pole sitter Rowan Campbell-Pilling. Campbell-Pilling would finish second initially but a 5 second time penalty for a false start would mean he would drop to third behind Bearman, meaning he would stay on the podium. Ethan Jeff-Hall would take home fourth place ahead of second placed in the standings Martin Molnár who rounds out the top 5. James Piszcyk would finish in 6^th ahead of Challenge Cup race winner Tommy Harfield who earned himself a two-position penalty after gaining an unfair advantage. Theo Palmer would finish in 8^th to take the final Rookie Cup podium behind McLaughlin and Bearman while Cole Hewetson would finish 9^th overall and 4^th in the Rookie Cup. Ary Bansal would round out the top 10 overall taking second place in the Challenge Cup in the process.

This leaves McLaughlin with a 44.5-point lead over Molnár in the championship while Piszcyk sits 20 points further back in third. Henry Joslyn sits in fourth while Harfield rounds out the top 5 overall. McLaughlin also leads the Rookie Cup standings by 136.5 points over Bearman while Palmer is in a close fight with Henry Mercier, Cole Hewetson and Xavier Avramides for third in Rookie Cup. Challenge Cup sees Harfield lead by 76 points over Ella Lloyd while Charlie Edge is in 3^rd place. Alba Larsen and Ary Bansal currently sit in 4^th and 5^th in the Challenge Cup standings.