Imogen Radburn continues development in F4 Australia, takes rookie win at Sepang

Imogen Radburn continued her learning season in Australian F4 with consistent progress at Sepang International Circuit, securing her best result of the weekend with a P7 finish and her fifth rookie class victory.

Photo credits: Top Speed / F4 Australia

Imogen Radburn continued her learning season in Australian F4 with another positive weekend of progression at Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia, which hosted the fourth and penultimate round of the season.

The AGI Sport driver, who made her F4 debut earlier this year at The Bend during the series' second round, has since made significant strides, highlighted by her breakthrough round at Sydney Motorsport Park, where she secured two fourth-place finishes and climbed the podium with a third-place result in Race 3.

The young racer, now in her third season of single-seaters after achieving notable success in Formula Ford, tackled a new challenge at Sepang, her first time racing at the former home of the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix. The larger field included several drivers with international racing experience, such as GB4 race winner and Indian F4 champion Cooper Webster, Chinese F4 champion Tiago Rodrigues, Formula Regional driver Costa Toparis, and British F4 racer Kai Daryanani.

Radburn spent the practice sessions learning the track and made good improvements, qualifying ninth in both sessions. In the first qualifying session, she set a time of 2:13.390, and in the second, she improved to 2:11.088 in a close session where she was only a tenth behind the car ahead and less than a second from fifth.

In Race 1, Tiago Rodrigues took pole ahead of Costa Toparis and series dominator James Piszcyk. Starting from the fifth row, Imogen had a good getaway, dropping to P10 but quickly reclaiming ninth from Seth Gilmore at the end of the first lap.

She continued to battle with Gilmore and extended her gap by gaining a few tenths. Ahead, Rodrigues pulled away at the front, while Webster and Piszcyk fought for second. Radburn gained ground on Iñigo Anton, matching the pace of the cars ahead, only separated by half a second.

However, a spin on lap 4 dropped Radburn down the order; fortunately, she avoided contact with Gilmore and could rejoin the race, although with a 20-second gap to recover.

Despite the setback, she kept pushing, setting her personal best lap and running consistent times on the 2:12 pace. With no opportunities to close the gap due to the lack of neutralizations, Radburn ultimately finished P10, having shown good speed in the first half of the race.

Rodrigues won the race, with Webster holding off Piszcyk for second, followed by Toparis and Daryanani.

Photo credits: Top Speed / F4 Australia

Race 1 winner Tiago Rodrigues lined up on pole for Race 2 on Sunday morning, but a technical issue forced him to start from the pit lane. Cooper Webster therefore took the lead at the start, followed by Piszcyk and Toparis.

Imogen Radburn had a great launch, moving from tenth to eighth by passing Sebastien Amadio, who was slow off the line. She built a three-second gap over Amadio and kept up the pace with Seth Gilmore, engaging in a battle that eventually allowed Amadio to close back in, forming a three-car fight for seventh.

All three gained a position on lap 3 when Piszcyk was handed a drive-through penalty for having team personnel on the grid after the 15-second board.

Radburn, however, received a 5-second penalty for a jump start, forcing her to push hard to maintain her position.

She continued to trail Gilmore and Amadio, running competitive laps. Championship leader Piszcyk, however, slowly recovered from his penalty and caught Radburn with 2 minutes to go, passing her under braking at turn 1.

Imogen finished the race in P9, crucially and retained her position on pole-sitter Rodrigues despite the penalty, having managed an over 6 second margin. Cooper Webster secured the victory, ahead of Toparis and Daryanani.

In the final race of the weekend, Q2 pace-setter Kai Daryanani started from pole ahead of Rodrigues and Webster, with Radburn lining up again from P9. She had a strong start, holding her position and moving up to eighth by the end of the first lap after Anton made contact and pitted.

Imogen soon caught her teammate Seth Gilmore and engaged in a close battle, following just three-tenths behind for several laps before making a move to take seventh, which also secured her the top spot in the rookie class.

Once ahead, Radburn pulled away, setting her personal best laps and following Piszcyk, who was only a few tenths faster. In the second half of the race, she maintained a pace not far from the championship leader and held her position to the checkered flag, finishing P7—her best result of the weekend. Her strong run in Race 3 also gained Radburn her fifth rookie class victory out of three rounds.

It was another step forward for the 18-year-old Australian, who continues her learning-focused season, gaining valuable experience and mileage at diverse racetracks. Importantly, she showed continuous improvement in pace, closing the gap to more experienced drivers by the end of the weekend.

With one triple-header round remaining, Radburn sits sixth in the drivers' championship despite missing the opening round, and is second in the rookie classification.