Argenti Motorsport and Zagazeta lead the way in morning session

Argenti Motorsport’s Matias Zagazeta set the pace during the morning session at the first official F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford EcoBoost test of pre-season.

The Peruvian – back for a second season in Britain’s FIA Formula 4 series – clocked a best time of 46.093 seconds out of 101 laps around the 1.16-mile Indy circuit, narrowly pipping team-mate Marcos Flack by just 0.069s.

Flack’s time was a late improvement, the Australian recovering well from a trip into the gravel at Paddock Hill earlier in the session to take second spot inside the final ten minutes of the session.

Erstwhile pacesetter Abbi Pulling was third fastest at the flag, just clear of fellow JHR racer McKenzy Cresswell.

Eduardo Coseteng’s fifth place ensured Argenti and JHR locked out a top five split by less than two tenths of a second, with Roman Bilinski sixth in the leading Carlin.

Just 0.012 seconds split Bilinski from fellow Carlin runner Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, with Joel Granfors (Fortec), Matthew Rees (JHR) and Dougie Bolger (Carlin) completing the top ten fastest runners.

Arden’s new charges Thomas Ikin and Zak Taylor were 11th and 14th respectively, the pair split by the final Carlin car of Kai Askey and Fortec’s Oliver Gray.

Multiple race winner James Hedley was 15th, with Georgi Dimitrov – driving for returnee outfit Richardson Racing – 16th. JHR’s Joseph Loake rounded out the field, but with substantially less running than the rest of the field.

The test concludes with the afternoon session, which is scheduled to get underway at 14:00. Live timing can be viewed here.