Come rain or shine, Deagen Fairclough secured a double triumph in British F4’s first-ever overseas event this weekend. The championship front-runner extended his points lead with two wins at Zandvoort – in torrential rain on Saturday and bright sunshine the following day.
Deagen topped qualifying across a record-breaking 27-car grid to net two pole positions, which he converted into two dominant victories – leading every lap in both races. He also drove brilliantly to rise from 12th on the grid in the reverse grid encounter on Sunday morning to achieve another podium finish in a near-perfect weekend with the Hitech team.
“Really happy, the weekend at Zandvoort could not have gone any better,” said a delighted Deagen. “It’s been amazing, we’ve secured a huge points haul and the car has been awesome all weekend. Huge thank you to Hitech, the support from them has been phenomenal all year.
“This track is fantastic and I’ve enjoyed every moment on it,” added the points leader. “The car has been pretty perfect and getting a 1-2 is a nice way to round off this event.”
In wet and challenging conditions, Deagen pulled away from the rest of the field to win by nearly nine seconds on Saturday morning at the undulating F1 track. After taking third in race two (delayed from Saturday) he drove superbly on Sunday afternoon to take his seventh British F4 win of the year.
The final race of the Zandvoort weekend was an excellent all-round performance for Hitech who had four cars finish in the top eight. Starting on the front row, Reza Seewooruthun made it a Hitech 1-2, while Mexican rookie Ernesto Rivera took sixth. Two places further back, F1 Academy racer Bianca Bustamante scored eighth place on her British F4 debut. It was an excellent end to another successful outing for the whole team.
“It was nice to get points after missing out in the other two races.” said Reza, who executed two strong starts as the initial race was red-flagged. “It was great to end the weekend on a high and give Hitech another one-two finish.”
It was an encouraging debut for Ernesto on his first weekend with the team, as he finished fifth on Saturday morning and all four drivers enjoyed getting up to speed at the challenging Dutch circuit.
After its first-ever international race, the British F4 series takes a short break before returning at Knockhill on August 10-11th.
Hitech is now 24.5 points clear at the top of the Teams’ Standings.