O’sullivan second in F4 title race after fourth victory of the season

ZAK O’sullivan chalked up a fourth victory of an increasingly impressive maiden season as the British F4 Championship made its annual visit north of the border to Knockhill.

The twisty, undulating circuit near Fife is one of the toughest on the calendar to master but the 15-year-old did so with aplomb, following up a fourth place in the opening race of the weekend with a victory in the second encounter and third in the finale.

The Carlin racer is now 37 points behind series leader Luke Browning (Fortec) in the standings and 55 clear of third placed Alex Connor (Arden), with five meetings and 14 races to go.

O’sullivan’s two best qualifying times were enough to secure him fourth on the grid for the opening and third races, a position he held to the flag in Saturday’s first encounter while also setting the fastest lap.

The partially-reversed grid for Sunday’s second race saw O’sullivan line up third, which quickly became first when polesitter Abbi Pulling (JHR) and Arden’s Roman Bilinski made contact on the first lap.

After a safety car, O’sullivan charged off into the distance at the restart and came home more than three seconds ahead of Browning, taking a second fastest lap.

In the final race, O’sullivan passed Connor in a bold move on the opening lap to keep up his record of taking two podiums at every meeting.

O’sullivan, from Withington, near Cirencester, now gets to enjoy a break of nearly three weeks before the championship visits Thruxton (September 18-20).

“I’ve enjoyed the back-to-back races but it is quite nice to get a break now. In a normal season you get used to long three-week gaps but we’ve not had that since we started,” said O’sullivan.

“Thruxton went very well for me in Ginettas last year and I wasn’t off the podium in the two meetings we did there. But F4 is different and I have no real expectations for this year.”