"My first year of single-seaters was supposed to be about learning, so to have two podiums already is unbelievable.” - Welsh racer Ella Lloyd achieved her second podium of her rookie British Formula 4 season with a second place at Knockhill, rebounding from a dramatic crash in race one to battle for the win in race two and eventually score her second runner-up finish to date.
Welsh racer Ella Lloyd continued to impress in her rookie season of single-seater racing, securing her second podium in the British Formula 4 Championship with a second-place finish at Knockhill. This remarkable achievement came after a significant crash on Saturday, where her car was sent into multiple rolls at the start of the race.
Thanks to the brilliant work by the JHR Developments crew, Lloyd's car was rebuilt in time for the second race on Sunday and she was back to full form, fighting for the victory in the reverse grid race and eventually securing a spectacular second-place finish. This marked her second runner-up place of the season, following an identical result at the Silverstone GP track in June.
In her F4 rookie season, Lloyd has consistently demonstrated great speed on most tracks, collecting 10 top-ten finishes and four top-five finishes to date, largely due to her strong qualifying performances.
The seventh round of the British F4 season took place at Knockhill, Scotland, a track where testing prior to racing weekends is usually limited. However, Lloyd had some familiarity with the circuit from her Ginetta Junior season and an F4 test earlier in March.
During pre-event testing, Lloyd made good progress, running mid-pack, and was seventh fastest in the third session on Wednesday, ending the day 12th with a time of 48.686 seconds. She continued to improve on Friday during the two practice sessions, recording a ninth-place finish in FP1 with a best time of 48.584 seconds, just three-tenths off the pace setter on a track where the top six were covered by a mere tenth of a second.
Qualifying on Saturday morning was a challenging yet crucial part of the weekend, as Knockhill races often have extremely close gaps where finding just a tenth of a second can make a massive difference. The session proved to be very tricky with a red flag coming out immediately three minutes in, as Scoular went off on his first lap.
The session resumed with 17 minutes left on the clock, but barely after completing a lap, the red flag was out again due to an incident involving Higgins. Meanwhile, Ella Lloyd had managed to set the seventh-fastest time. When the green flag waved again, Campbell-Pilling set a new benchmark, overtaking Cui, whose time had remained fastest through the first half of the session. Ella improved her time to P6 as the times began to drop.
Lloyd further improved her time, although one lap was deleted due to track limits. A third red flag with five minutes remaining saw Lloyd in P13. The session resumed after a quick interruption due to Fu's Virtuosi Racing car. Lloyd crucially managed to improve her time to 12th position.
Deagan Fairclough secured double pole positions, ahead of Campbell-Pilling and Molnar. Ella qualified 12th with a time of 48.933 seconds, six-tenths off pole, but crucially gained reverse grid pole position for race two. She was P11 on her second-fastest lap, close to the top ten.
In the first 20-minute race of the weekend, Ella started from P11. Immediately after the start, she was involved in a crash where her car flipped at the first corner, bringing out a red flag. Ella emerged from the car unscathed.
“Race one wasn’t the ideal start to the weekend", Lloyd commented. "I had a good start and was closing in on the cars in front. A car moved across, I reacted, and I didn’t see a car in my blind spot on my left, so I clipped their front wing. I slid across the grass and the car dug in, so I rolled two and a half times."
After significant work overnight, the JHR Developments car was ready in time for Race 2.
On Sunday morning, under dry and sunny skies in Scotland, the reverse grid race therefore offered a great opportunity to score big points: Ella, recovering from the disappointment of race 1, had the chance to redeem herself from pole position.
She and Daryanani battled for the lead at turn 1, but Ella held onto the position. Lloyd led Daryanani and Robinson, setting the fastest lap early on and trying to establish a half-second margin as the positions changed for second and third when Robinson overtook Daryanani, giving Ella a buffer.
JHR Development's Robinson, however, closed back in on Lloyd after setting a new fastest lap, running four-tenths adrift, but Ella managed to hold on. Lloyd then came under pressure from her teammate Robinson, who eventually made a move stick on lap 9. Ella fought back, but Robinson got through a few corners later after a brilliant battle, demoting Lloyd, who now had to fend off Daryanani.
The Welsh driver slightly lost touch with Robinson but focused on defending from Daryanani and Cui with seven minutes to go. A red flag was shown with three minutes remaining due to Ninovic's car being stranded on the track.
Ella Lloyd thus secured her second podium of the season, another second-place finish following her earlier runner-up result at Silverstone. This marked her 10th top-ten finish in 19 races, a remarkable feat for a rookie driver in her first season of single-seaters and in such a competitive grid.
"We started race two on pole", she summed up. "The team only just finished building the car as soon as I jumped in, so we didn’t know what it would be like, and I had to adapt to what I had. I kept pushing, and Leo had more pace than me, but I was glad to finish second."
In the final race of the Scottish weekend, starting positions were determined by the fastest lap of Saturday's qualifying, which would have put Ella in 12th on the grid. Unfortunately, she was unable to take the start of the final race.
Deagan Fairclough won his ninth race of the season, ahead of Molnar, with Ninovic taking third.
Despite the disappointment of race 1 and missing race 3, the remarkable result in race 2 strengthened Lloyd's position as one of the most promising drivers in the series, capable of battling for race wins and podiums. After seven rounds, Lloyd is 11th in the championship standings with 75 points.
Reflecting on her season so far, Ella Lloyd said, "My first year of single-seaters was supposed to be about learning, so to have two podiums already is unbelievable.”
The next round is scheduled for two weeks' time (24-25 August) at Donington Park, marking the championship's second visit to the circuit after the season opener, although this time on the Grand Prix layout.
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