The F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford made its annual pilgrimage to the 1.27-mile Knockhill circuit in Scotland last weekend (12-14 August) and once again there was no shortage of drama.

The title race was blown wide open with Carlin's Max Fewtrell emerging back on top; whilst Luis Leeds and Zane Goddard put in exceptional performances for their respective TRS Arden and Double R Racing teams with a victory apiece. Fortec Motorsports Alex Quinn played a starring role throughout, flying the flag for the Racing Steps Foundation and dominating the Rookie Class.

Petru Florescu put in a textbook performance in the opening race at Knockhill to claim his sixth victory of the season. Not for the first time this year the Carlin driver put in a flawless drive from pole. He controlled the race, looking after his tyres and expertly dealt with the pressure of two safety car restarts; slowing the pack right down at the apex of the final corner and flooring the throttle to get the jump on his pursuers.

Fortec Motorsports’ Alex Quinn chased the Romanian home, making a welcome return to the podium and ending Nicolai Kjaergaard’s run of consecutive Rookie class wins. His team-mate finding himself under attack for much of the race as title contenders DeFrancesco, Leeds, Pull and Fewtrell fought their way through the field having been caught out by the drying conditions in qualifying.  

Luis Leeds stood on the top step for the third time this season after a perfect drive from pole in the second race of the weekend.

The Red Bull Junior star made a clean getaway off the line and had enough pace in hand to keep Double R’s fast starting Goddard at bay. Goddard having leapt past Jamie Caroline who stuttered off the line due to making a false start fractions of a second beforehand.

The two Aussies sped away from the field unaware of the drama that was to unfold behind them. Leeds recording fastest lap in the process and bringing home a victory which puts him right in the thick of the championship battle.

Carlin’s DeFrancesco and Petru Florescu were in the pound seats swarming all over the back the back of Caroline. DeFrancesco ducking and diving in his attempts to get past the Fortec racer. It was to no avail however and as the race drew ever closer to its conclusion it ended in tears for the Carlin pairing.

Caroline’s robust defence unsettling DeFrancesco at Taylor’s hairpin, allowing Florescu to move alongside his team-mate down the main straight. The title rivals made contact, sliding into the tyre barriers and blowing the title race wide open.

Following the incident the stewards chose to exclude Florescu from the meeting due to a trackside altercation, whilst DeFrancesco and Caroline were handed ten place grid penalties to be taken when possible to do so. This promoted Quinn to first place in the amended Round 19 result.

Fortec Motorsports’ Quinn found himself surrounded by the Carlin quartet for much of the race. Petru Florescu sneaking past early on, but then found James Pull and Max Fewtrell all over him. Fewtrell eventually found a way past and the fireworks between his team-mates provided him with a valuable third place.

In the final feature race at Knockhill it was Zane Goddard who claimed an emphatic win. He led home compatriot Leeds and Racing Steps Foundation backed Quinn.

Goddard had been exceptional off the line in the preceding British F4 races this weekend and it was the same story for Round 21 of the Championship, as he flew past Leeds for second place into turn one.

The Australian then set about Quinn who led from pole. The breakthrough came sooner than he perhaps imagined. Quinn locked up on tyres that weren’t quite up to optimal temperature into Taylor’s Hairpin and Goddard needed no encouragement to scythe his way up the inside.

His Double R-prepared race car looked like it was on rails around the 1.27 mile Fife track; the team clearly having set the car up perfectly. Goddard maximised the Ford EcoBoost-powered machinery at his disposal and was simply untouchable, unsurprisingly recording fastest lap on the way to his second British F4 victory.

Said Goddard: “I was super consistent. It felt perfect. The whole race played out perfectly. It couldn’t have been any better. I’m really happy. Huge thanks to the team and the fans. They’ve been great and cheering me on as I crossed the line.

“The car was so good it was hard to actually do anything wrong in it. The car was hooked up and fantastic.

“The starts have been so good lately. We keep nailing them and hopefully we can keep this up in the future.”

“Knockhill is a track where there isn’t too much braking which means you’re pushing the car quite hard most of the time and to the limit which is tricky to do, but it’s rewarding when it works out.

Despite losing out to Goddard at the start there was no let-up from Leeds who focused on getting past Quinn and he did so with arguably the overtake of the weekend.

The Red Bull Junior ducking to the outside of Quinn into Taylor’s Hairpin forcing him to cover and then making a split-second switch down the Fortec racer’s inside under braking without locking up. A beautiful move, showcasing extremely fair and respectful driving from both drivers who exhibited true class.

Explained Leeds: “We had a lot of pace. This weekend started off pretty average in qualifying when we were unfortunate not to be on slicks at the right time, but we didn’t lose our focus.

“We got pole for race two and turned things around from there. We’re pretty close to leading the championship now and we must keep moving forward.

“This morning I was 48 points off the lead and now I’m only five away which is the beauty of this sport.

Speaking about his epic overtaking manoeuvre: “I learnt that move from Daniel Ricciardo when he did something very similar to Vettel at Monza when they were team-mates and I really hope he gets to watch my move today.

“I saw Alex make a mistake and I was originally going to go around the outside, but I thought I would make it look cool and switch to going down the inside. It looks pretty cool on camera I think.”

Quinn was solid in third and rounded out a strong weekend with yet another Rookie class victory. His 12th of the campaign.

Said Quinn: “I lost the lead to Zane on the opening lap and I think that was just down to tyre temperature which we have been struggling with all weekend, but I’m still really happy with this. A win (following’s Florescu’s exclusion from the meeting) and a podium is not a bad thing to be coming out of the weekend with."

Amended provisional results Knockhill 13 August 2016
20 laps / 25.3 miles
1 Alex QUINN / GBR / Fortec 20m 45.077s / 73.25mph
2 Devlin DEFRANCESCO / CDN / Carlin +0.461s
3 Zane GODDARD / AUS / Double R +0.850s
4 Jamie CAROLINE / GBR / Fortec +3.102s
5 Luis LEEDS / AUS / Arden +4.678s
6 James PULL / GBR / Carlin +5.552s
7 Max FEWTRELL / GBR / Carlin +5.766s
8 Jack MARTIN / GBR / Arden +8.823s
9 Ayrton SIMMONS +10.198s
10 Nicolai KJAERGAARD / DEN / Fortec +11.239s etc.

Fastest lap Max Fewtrell / Carlin 50.226s / 90.81mph

Rookie class 1 Quinn, 2 Martin, 3 Simmons, 4 Kjaergaard

F4 British Championship certified by FIA - powered by Ford

Provisional results Round 20 Knockhill 14 August 2016
17 laps / 21.53 miles
1 Luis LEEDS / AUS / Arden 16m 15.334s / 79.49 mph
2 Zane GODDARD / AUS / Double R +0.467s
3 Max FEWTRELL / GBR / Carlin +2.257s
4 Alex QUINN / GBR / Fortec +3.026s
5 James PULL / GBR / Carlin +3.448s
6 Ayrton SIMMONS / GBR / Arden +4.018s
7 Rafael MARTINS / BRA / Arden +5.343s
8 Sennan FIELDING / GBR / JHR +6.188s
9 Billy MONGER / GBR / JHR +6.568s
10 Frank BIRD / GBR / Fortec +7.534s etc.

Fastest lap Luis Leeds 49.814s / 91.56 mph

Rookie class 1 Quinn, 2 Simmons, 3 Kjaergaard

Provisional results Round 21 Knockhill 14 August 2016
24 laps / 30.4 miles
1 Zane GODDARD / AUS / Double R 20m 18.396s / 89.84 mph
2 Luis LEEDS / AUS / Arden +5.815s
3 Alex QUINN / GBR / Fortec +8.354s
4 Sennan FIELDING / GBR / JHR +11.276s
5 Max FEWTRELL / GBR / Carlin +11.593s
6 Rafael MARTINS / BRA / Arden +12.092s
7 James PULL / GBR / Carlin +12.533s
8 Jamie CAROLINE / GBR / Fortec +21.287s
9 Devlin DEFRANCESCO / CDN / Carlin +21.603s
10 Nicolai KJAERGAARD / DEN / Fortec +26.364s etc.

Fastest lap Zane Goddard 50.232s / 90.80 mph

Rookie class 1 Quinn, 2 Kjaergaard, 3 Martin, 4 Simmons

Provisional championship standings
1 Fewtrell 232, 2 Leeds 227, 3 DeFrancesco 214, =4 Fielding 210, =4 Pull 210, 6 Florescu 202, 7 Goddard 178, 8 Quinn 174, 9 Martins 128, 10 Caroline 122 etc.

Rookie class
1 Quinn 399, 2 J. Martin 288, 3 Kjaergaard 283, 4 Simmons 236, 5 R. Martin 130