The McLaren driver, Dries Van Langendonck, has achieved a double pole position to start the 2026 season of the British Formula 4 at the Donington Park circuit. Van Langendonck, champion of the Formula Winter Series, finished the qualifying session with a time that allowed him to establish his superiority with a lead of 0.259 seconds over Theo Palmer, thus securing pole for the last race of the weekend.
The driver, who set the pace from the start of the session, saw the provisional pole change hands several times as drivers improved their times. Just a few minutes after the session began, drivers like Alfie Slater, Ella Lloyd, and Palmer took the lead before Van Langendonck regained the top spot.
At the midpoint of the session, the Rodin driver was leading the classification ahead of Mercedes protégé Ethan Jeff-Hall, who was only 0.045 seconds behind. Palmer remained in third position with Scott Kin Lindblom from Red Bull closing in on fourth place.
After a brief mid-session pause, Van Langendonck returned to the track and quickly improved his time, extending the gap with Jeff-Hall. With continuous improvements, drivers like Jarrett Clark and Palmer moved into the top positions, but it was Van Langendonck who, with a final time of over 1m05s, remained the only driver to go below that mark at the Donington Park circuit.
The qualifying results left Van Langendonck in a privileged position, with Jarrett Clark and Ethan Jeff-Hall completing the podium for the first race, while for the third race, the grid was tighter with Clark in second place and Jeff-Hall in third.
Qualifying Summary
Race 1 Grid – based on best times:
- 1. Dries Van Langendonck (Rodin Motorsport) – 1m05.035s
- 2. Jarrett Clark (Virtuosi Racing) +0.202s
- 3. Ethan Jeff-Hall (Argenti Motorsport) +0.301s
- 4. Theo Palmer (Hitech GP) +0.393s
- 5. Scott Kin Lindholm (Hitech GP) +0.422s
- 6. Cash Felber (Fortec Motorsports) +0.461s
- 7. George Proudford-Nalder (Virtuosi Racing) +0.465s
- 8. Joseph Smith (Virtuosi Racing) +0.496s
- 9. Ethan Lennon (Rodin Motorsport) +0.524s
- 10. Ethan Carney (Fortec Motorsports) +0.559s
Race 3 Grid – best times:
- 1. Dries Van Langendonck – 1m04.865s
- 2. Theo Palmer +0.259s
- 3. Jarrett Clark +0.294s
- 4. Ethan Jeff-Hall +0.447s
- 5. Joseph Smith +0.490s
- 6. George Proudford-Nalder +0.494s
- 7. Cash Felber +0.544s
- 8. Scott Kin Lindblom +0.592s
- 9. Lewis Wherrell +0.664s
- 10. Haarni Sadiq +0.668s
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
