Lynn Keeps Lead After Chaotic Weekend
Fortec Motorsport’s Alex Lynn extended his Formula Renault UK Championship lead at Croft, in a weekend that saw many thrills and spills in treacherous conditions.
It was not one-way traffic for the Essex youngster as Saturday saw Lynn beaten by Atech Reid GP driver Jack Hawksworth in Qualifying One by over three tenths of a second.
Normal service was resumed in Qualifying Two where Lynn took his eighth pole position of the season, qualifying ahead of team-mate Mitchell Gilbert and Manor Competitions’ Alice Powell.
Round nine of the series was held on Saturday after the two qualifying sessions, and it saw Jack Hawksworth take a fairytale win from pole on his debut with the Atech Reid GP team after his switch from Mark Burdett Motorsport.
The race wasn’t all plain sailing for Hawksworth after team-mate Oscar King beached his car on the first lap, causing a safety car, and needed a hand from the marshals to rejoin the action. But Hawksworth kept his head, and after a near perfect restart held the gap to team-mate and title challenger Tio Ellinas to take his maiden Formula Renault UK win.
“I had a very nervy warm up lap before the start of the race as I had some issues with the clutch,” said Hawksworth.
“I managed to keep my nerves and made a very good start to lead the pack into the first corner. I was slightly disappointed when the safety car came out as I lost my lead, but I got a good start at restart. For the rest of the race I knew that Tio was close behind but managed to hold on to get my first win in the series which I am absolutely delighted about.”
Ellinas drove faultlessly, but was unable to overtake his team-mate and take advantage of Alex Lynn’s worst result of the season.
“I made a very good start at the beginning of the race with and managed to get into second position quite easily,” said third-qualifying Ellinas.
“The car felt very good and I pushed hard throughout the race but I couldn’t quite catch Jack. I am happy to take a second place finish as it has enabled me to close the gap in the championship on Lynn slightly.”
It was the Fortec Motorsport car of Oliver Rowland who took the final podium spot after a race long battle with team-mate Lynn.
“Initially I didn’t have a very good start at the beginning of the race but I still managed to overtake Lynn on the first corner,” said Rowland.
“I certainly felt that I was faster in the first half of the race and then the tyres started to wear slightly I didn’t have the same pace. I’m very happy to finish on the podium today.”
Lynn tried hard to pass Rowland, but this was to no avail, and a move late in the race forced Lynn wide and Josh Hill capitalised to take and excellent fourth place.
“The race didn’t go quite to plan for us today,” said Lynn. “Unfortunately I made contact with Josh on the first corner which bent the front wing on the car. As I was making progress I also tried to make a move on Rowland which didn’t pay off and I went wide. In the grand scheme of things a fifth position isn’t the end of the world, it could have been a lot worse.”
It was a seasons best for the improving Hill, but he still wanted more.
“The car felt very good throughout the race so I was slightly disappointed not to come away with a podium,” said Hill.
“Croft is a very difficult track to overtake on so as the race went on I knew that I fourth was a realistic aim. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s race and from seventh; I think that a top five finish is very achievable.”
Sunday came and weather worsened, however Lynn shone and drove a peerless race in changing conditions to take the win by over eleven seconds.
“It’s absolutely brilliant to get a win after yesterday’s poor result,” said Lynn who leaves Croft with a 58 championship points advantage.
“I made a good start and managed to gain a nice lead over the first few laps, but when the rain came it certainly made things tricky, especially as different parts of the track would be wet at different times.”
The changing conditions saw a chaotic race for the chasing pack apart from Lynn’s team-mate Mitchell Gilbert who took his season’s best result of second place, along with the Graduate Cup win.
“I was quite disappointed with the start I made as it gave me a disadvantage on the first lap,” said the Fortec driver, “but by the end of the first lap I was showing good pace and was pleased to keep up with Lynn and push him. But when the rain came out Alex’s experience showed and he was able to pull out a good lead to give him the win.”
Jordan King benefited from his Manor Competition team-mate Alice Powell’s misfortune to take third place, also a season’s best result.
“Things got very frantic for me off the start as I was quite late off the clutch,” said Jordan.
“Fortunately I still managed to make a good start and then managed to make up a position on the first corner. After that the first few laps were quite difficult due to lack of temperature in the tyres, but by the time the rain came on the fourth lap I really felt to grips with the car and showed great pace.”
Pedro Pablo Calbimonte was another driver who took his season’s best result in round ten, taking a well deserved fourth place, and he was followed by Oscar King who equalled his best result of fifth.
“I made a pretty average start off the line,” said Oscar.
“In the first few laps I had a moment coming out of Sunny Out as the conditions were very slippery. As the rain came down more I became very confident with the car and it had great pace. I’m happy with the progress made from the race as towards the end I set numerous fastest laps.”
The sole Mark Burdett Motorsport car of Daniel Cammish took sixth place, and it was his best result since he joined the championship at the previous round at Oulton Park.
“I made a good start but it took a few laps for me to really get going in the race,” he said.
“As the conditions on the track started to change I felt that the pace of the car started to improve more and more. My race was really hindered when Wells exited the pits and failed to give way despite being two laps down.
“Overall I am very happy with my progress from the weekend as I now feel that I have gained enough experience from driving the car to go out and get a double podium at Snetterton.”
Wells, who finished eighth, pitted after damage to his Atech Reid GP car and came out of the pits two laps down, gambling on wet tyres. After initially being shown blue flags and moving over for the top five cars, Wells was then not shown another and this lead to confusion, and led him to believe he was racing Cammish.
“I got a good start and managed to get the jump on Oscar but unfortunately at the first corner it was pretty chaotic and I was backed up into another car, allowing Oscar back, and he just clipped my wing.
“So I had to pit for a replacement, losing me two laps, and when I came back out, it was pretty crazy. It was a very tricky race, it was confusing as you couldn’t see who was where and who had pitted or been lapped and no blue flags in places to warn me.
It was a bad day for championship challenger Tio Ellinas, who came home a lowly seventh after running third early in the race.
“I’m very disappointed with how the race went for me,” said Ellinas “I felt that in the early stages of the race I was running consistently and the car felt good but then Rowland made contact with me at the hairpin with ended any chance of me being competitive. Hopefully I can put things right at Snetterton.”
There now follows a seven week break until the next rounds of the championship, but for Lynn there’s an introduction to the Lotus Renault GP team at Valencia next weekend. This comes thanks to Lotus Motorsport as a prize for him leading the championships standings at the mid-way of the season.
Full results here http://www.tsl-timing.com/toca/2011/112403frn.pdf
Mike Trusler
