British F4: Ella Lloyd collects top-5 finish at Zandvoort

Ella Lloyd enjoyed another very positive weekend in British F4 Championship at Zandvoort, securing two point-scoring finishes, including a top-five in Race 2, despite a technical issue limited her track time in practice - highlighting her impressive rookie season with nine top-ten finishes out of 17 races to date.

Photo credits: JEP

Ella Lloyd enjoyed another very positive weekend in the ROKiT British F4 Championship as she tackled the Dutch circuit of Zandvoort for the first time. The JHR Developments driver had a stellar qualifying session, converting it into two point-scoring finishes, including a top-five result in Race 2.

In her first season of single-seater racing, Lloyd impressed with strong finishes in the highly competitive environment of British F4. The championship features one of the highest quality fields in F4 competitions in Europe, and Lloyd has scored nine top-ten finishes out of 17 races, including her maiden podium finish - a second place at Silverstone.

The Zandvoort weekend marked the championship's first race meeting outside the UK and featured a groundbreaking record of eight female racing drivers on the grid, an all-time high for British F4 and any FIA-sanctioned F4 championship globally. The Dutch round also saw a season-high of 27 entries.

Lloyd's weekend was off to a bumpy start on Thursday in practice, but she would bounce back from a gearbox issue in the first session that severely limited her running to set the 20th fastest time in the afternoon session with a 1:38.422 lap. However, drivers were met with significantly different conditions on Saturday, as rain hit the Zandvoort circuit with showers throughout the day.

The qualifying session was therefore a wet one, but that didn't slow down Ella Lloyd, who showed some of her best qualifying speed. Despite a few red flags disrupting the session, Lloyd ended in the top ten with the ninth fastest lap, a 1:50.366 that put her one place ahead of championship contender Alex Ninovic. Notably, her second-best lap time of 1:50.578 placed her fifth fastest for the grid of Race 1, while the top-12 reverse order would place her fourth on the grid of Race 2 - setting up an extremely encouraging start to the weekend for the Welsh racer.

The biggest British F4 grid of the season saw Ella Lloyd lining up from P5 for the first race of the weekend: when the lights went out, all drivers made it through the first turn despite the difficult visibility. Lloyd had an amazing getaway, moving from fifth to second off the line, but unfortunately slipped and went through the gravel at Scheivlak corner, losing several positions. Deagan Fairclough led from pole ahead of Molnar, Ninovic, and Dodds, with Ella dropping to 19th after her off-track excursion.

Ninovic passed Molnar for second, while Fairclough drove away in clear visibility. Lloyd began her recovery, making up a couple of positions and following Jessica Edgar in a train of cars that included Gademan, Chong, and Bustamante. Ella passed Harrison and then gained another position when Sherwood pitted with an issue. Slightly faster than Edgar, Ella eventually passed her on lap 9 for P13.

Fairclough opened an eight-second gap, being the only driver under the 1:50 pace, while Ninovic couldn't quite keep up. The pole-sitter eventually took victory, with Molnar holding on to third. Ella Lloyd crossed the finish line in 12th, having picked up one more place on Yuhao Fu on the last lap. Despite an unfortunate start, it was a good recovery drive from 19th to salvage a 12th place in a rather chaotic and challenging wet race.

“In Thursday practice I only completed six laps as I had a gearbox problem, and the second session was red flagged", Lloyd commented. "Qualifying in the wet put me back into contention, because no one else has had wet testing at Zandvoort, so finishing P9 was good."

"Race one I lined up fifth and had a good start but took a bit too much speed into turn seven and dipped a wheel on the grass, so went off and was almost last. I kept pushing forward and made my way back up to P12, which was a good recovery, but we had the potential for a podium if I hadn’t made the mistake."

Race 2 was supposed to take place on Saturday afternoon, and while the track remained damp, it had dried enough for slicks. However, rain started again as the cars left for the formation lap. The start was delayed when Matus Ryba's car came to a halt on the final corner, giving some drivers the chance to make a late call to switch to wet weather tyres.

After another formation lap, the lights went out briefly, then turned red again, creating chaos as most drivers started, then stopped again, leading to collisions. Seven cars crashed on the main straight, resulting in a red flag. Due to a technical issue with the starting lights, the race was abandoned and then resumed on Sunday morning.

Photo credits: JEP

On Sunday, the weather conditions were significantly different, with a dry track. From the reverse grid pole, Abbi Pulling had a difficult start and fell behind her Rodin Motorsport teammate Alex Ninovic, while Ella Lloyd had a great launch from fourth, moving up to third right behind Pulling. Kai Daryanani spun at turn 1, but was avoided by everyone and rejoined at the back.

Ella, who had limited dry track running in practice due to the technical issue, struggled a bit more to find her rhythm and came under pressure from Deagan Fairclough for third. She defended hard but eventually lost the position on lap 3. With Rowan Campbell-Pilling and Seewooruthun right behind, a collision between Campbell-Pilling and Seewooruthun ended their races with 12 minutes to go. Ella lost out to Jack Sherwood, dropping to P5.

In the closing minutes, Lloyd managed to keep Yuanpu Cui behind and secured a hard-earned top-five finish - a superb result for the Welsh driver and her third top-five of the season, which gained her 6 championship points.

“I had a really good start to race two, moving to P3, but as I didn’t have much practice, I was on the back foot", she explained. "I pushed as much as I could, felt where the grip was, tried my hardest, and I think my defending was pretty decent."

In Race 3 on Sunday afternoon, again in dry conditions, Ella Lloyd lined up ninth based on her best lap qualifying results. She held her position at the start and gained one spot on lap 2, passing Ernesto Rivera to move into P8. Deagan Fairclough led from pole, followed by Seewooruthun and Molnar, while Ninovic quickly charged his way up.

Lloyd fell behind Sherwood but continued battling solidly in the top ten, with Abbi Pulling closing in. A big crash halted the race on lap 4 when Lloyd, Campbell-Pilling, and Rivera went three-wide into turn 4, causing Campbell-Pilling to cut through the grass and rejoin in the path of Robinson and Scoular, triggering a major collision and a red flag.

Lloyd managed to avoid damage and continued, albeit down in tenth. After a restart behind the safety car with 9 minutes to go, Ninovic suffered front wing damage and dropped down. Ella Llloyd battled well, trading positions with Pulling, and eventually moved up to P8.

Deagan Fairclough remained unchallenged, winning ahead of Seewooruthun in a Hitech 1-2, with Sherwood taking the third step of the podium. Lloyd fought hard once again to finish seventh, wrapping up another very positive weekend with her ninth top-10 finish to date.

"I had another good start for race three, though it was a bit tight on the first few corners, and had a decent Safety Car restart and a good run to the flag", Ella summed up.

"My racing has shown this weekend, especially only having six laps in practice, and we were quick in the wet and dry, as well as scoring good points for the championship.”

Despite the technical issue limiting her track time in dry conditions on Thursday, she in fact fought back brilliantly and scored a big haul of points over the Dutch round; she now sits tenth in the championship standings, with 63 points, a remarkable result in her F4 debut season.

After a four-week break, the season will resume at Knockhill in Scotland over the weekend of August 9-11.