{"id":9336,"date":"2025-08-30T17:13:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T17:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/?p=9336"},"modified":"2025-08-30T17:13:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T17:13:54","slug":"donington-delight-as-tommy-harfield-charges-to-maiden-british-f4-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/donington-delight-as-tommy-harfield-charges-to-maiden-british-f4-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Donington delight as Tommy Harfield charges to maiden British F4 victory"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tommy Harfield produced a masterful performance to claim his first-ever win in the Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by FIA at Donington Park, becoming the 12th different race winner of the season in the process.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Chris Dittmann Racing driver started the weekend\u2019s opening contest from pole position and proceeded to not put a wheel wrong as he soaked up relentless pressure from title combatants Fionn McLaughlin (Hitech TGR) and Martin Moln\u00e1<\/span>r (Virtuosi Racing)<\/span> to triumph.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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McLaughlin\u2019s late move on Moln\u00e1r ensured that he was able to increase his advantage at the top of the Drivers\u2019 Championship even further, with his lead now standing at 44.5 points ahead of tomorrow\u2019s two remaining races around the East Midlands circuit.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Saturday\u2019s track action began in spectacular fashion as series debutant <\/span>Dries <\/span>v<\/span>an Langendonck<\/span> (Rodin Motorsport) celebrated his birthday by sweeping aside the opposition in Qualifying to claim the C1RCUIT Watches Pole Position Award.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It was a captivating Qualifying session, with 10 changes of fastest time as Moln\u00e1r, McLaughlin and Harfield traded times before the McLaren Development Driver laid down a marker no other could better toward the end of the session.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Harfield \u2013 who is now no longer permitted to compete for Challenge Cup honours due to this being his eighth event of the campaign \u2013 emerged as the nearest challenger to the Belgian teenager whilst Moln\u00e1r, McLaughlin and Ary Bansal (Fortec Motorsport) completed the top-five.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As always, second fastest lap times determined the starting order for race one, and that placed Harfield on pole position with <\/span>van Langendonck<\/span> joining him on the front row in second place \u2013 although things would change immediately as the lights went out.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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While Harfield was able to power into the race lead, <\/span>van Langendonck<\/span> sadly stalled and dropped to the rear of the field; and credit must be given to the rest of the grid for being able to avoid his stricken machine as he valiantly battled to overcome his initial inertia.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Up at the sharp end, Harfield led the field down the Craner Curves, but he had no time to relax as Moln\u00e1r was looming large in his mirrors, while a rapid start from McLaughlin saw him go from fifth to third within a handful of corners.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It wasn\u2019t long before the top three soon broke away from the chasing pack, with Harfield maintaining a slender margin over Moln\u00e1r and McLaughlin. Behind them, Thomas Bearman (Hitech TGR) and Bansal had everyone captivated as they battled for fourth and fifth.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Going wheel-to-wheel as the race headed towards mid-distance, Bearman frustratingly became the first to hit trouble as he limped back to the pit lane with a puncture. Then just a few laps later, Bansal would also be forced into the pit lane to rectify an issue with his car.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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They weren\u2019t the only drivers to find themselves in strife either as the trio of Chase Fernandez (Xcel Motorsport), Henry Mercier (Argenti Motorsport) and Rowan Campbell-Pilling (JHR Developments) all had to make unscheduled stops, with Campbell-Pilling becoming the race\u2019s only retirement.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Meanwhile, Harfield drove with a cool head to hold off Moln\u00e1r and McLaughlin, and in the end he was able to claim a maiden win for both himself and Chris Dittmann Racing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Harfield\u2019s victory was all but assured come the penultimate lap as, after sizing him up for a majority of the race, McLaughlin snatched second place away from Moln\u00e1r, as he completed a bold move down at Redgate.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Red Bull Junior \u2013 who also scooped Rookie Cup honours and the Lotus Fastest Lap \u2013 went on to snare runners-up laurels with Moln\u00e1r having to settle for third place.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Jimmy Piszcyk (Rodin Motorsport) banked more solid points in fourth as he headed August Raber (Argenti Motorsport), Henry Joslyn (Fortec Motorsport), Adam Al Azhari (Rodin Motorsport) and Ethan Jeff-Hall (Argenti Motorsport), the latter receiving a time penalty for track limit offences.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Completing the top ten was series returnee Oleksandr Savinkov (Virtuosi Racing) and Rookie Cole Hewetson (Xcel Motorsport), another driver that was hit by a five-second time penalty for an alleged start procedure misdemeanour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Outside the top ten, Thomas Ingram-Hill (Fortec Motorsport) scooped honours in the Challenge Cup and Arjen Kr\u00e4ling (Argenti Motorsport) completed the Rookie podium, whilst <\/span>van Langendonck<\/span> delivered a standout drive by producing a spirited fightback to battle back into 14th.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Races two and three of the Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by FIA at Donington Park\u00a0are scheduled to take place at 09:15 and 13:15 respectively on Sunday. UK viewers can tune into\u00a0ITV4 and ITVX\u2019s<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0free-to-air coverage that commences at 10:45\u00a0BST, while both\u00a0contests will also be streamed live\u00a0on\u00a0the championship\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>for those watching outside the UK.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/strong> for all the links you<\/span>\u2019<\/span>ll need this weekend \u2013 including coverage on our social media channels, live timing, commentary from the circuit, results & standings, race reports\u00a0and podcast & post-race interviews.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tommy Harfield produced a masterful performance to claim his first-ever win in the Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by FIA at Donington Park, becoming the 12th different race winner of the season in the process. The Chris Dittmann Racing driver started the weekend\u2019s opening contest from pole position and proceeded to not put a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9338,"href":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9336\/revisions\/9338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiaformula4.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}