Ninovic continues podium run

Australian young gun Alex Ninovic has carried on his prolific podium run in British F4 by collecting two more trophies at Knockhill.

Despite retiring from Race 2 with fuel pump issues, Ninovic finished second in the opener and third in the finale at the fast Scottish Circuit.

These results have brought his podium tally to 14 appearances from 21 races and further cement second in the championship only behind Deagen Fairclough and well ahead of Reza Seewooruthun.

Ninovic qualified fourth, two tenths away from pole sitter Fairclough, who took a lights-to-flag triumph in opener.

The race had a dramatic start where Kai Daryanani and Ella Lloyd clashed, which saw the latter roll into the gravel and create a red flag.

When racing resumed Ninovic snatched third and held onto it after a fast start saw the Rodin racer leap ahead of Martin Molnar.

Despite being third on the road, the Aussie ended up being second after Rowan Campbell-Pilling was pinged for a jump start.

“It was a tricky race there,” Ninovic said.

“I got a really good start the first time going from fourth to second and then that got re done because of the red flag.

“I ended up moving to third on the second restart and the jump start bunched me and Deagen up a bit and I struggled a little bit behind on pace and that is how the race ended.”

The second race was an abrupt one for Ninovic due to the fuel pump issue as Algeria’s Leo Robinson took victory ahead of Ella Lloyd.

In Race 3 Fairclough was back on pole and cruised to a ninth win of the season.

Behind him was an intense battle for the minors and Ninovic was in the thick of the action.

Campbell-Pilling jumped Molnar off the line and the pair ran nose to tail all the way to the flag, however, the former suffered a 5s time penalty for exceeding track limits, dropping him to fourth.

It also promoted Ninovic to another podium with third and he was thrilled to come away with some silverware despite not quite having a complete weekend.

“Definitely getting some podiums and points from this weekend is a positive because this weekend has not gone exactly the way I wanted it to go,” he said.

“Not finishing race 2 was quite gutting but there is nothing you can do when you have a car problem.

 “Still getting good points and I am really looking forward to Donington and hopefully we can top qualifying again.”

Ninovic has a big chance next up at Donington Park where he will start from pole in a rescheduled race in addition to the usual three-race round on August 24-25.

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