After a season long battle, the Young Guns championship fight came down to the final race at Thruxton, with young talent Max Cornelius just missing out on the crown after contact with main title rival Patryk Szczerbinski on the final lap of the season.
The 16 year old won the first race of the weekend, his seventh victory of the season, to put him within reach as they headed towards the final race. With the race reaching its conclusion, the Motaworld driver had the title in his sights as he edged past Szczerbinski heading into the Club Chicane for the last time, but Szczerbinski fought back, forcing Cornelius into a last ditch lunge, ending up with contact between the two. With neither able to get back on track and finish the race, retirement for the pair saw Szczerbinski pick up the title.
Despite frustratingly missing out on the big prize, Cornelius can come away from his maiden single seater season with his head held high, picking up more wins than any other driver on the grid, with an impressive seven wins out of his last ten starts.
Max said: “Obviously, it's really disappointing to miss out on the title this way but we've given it a really good shot since we joined the championship and to win more than half the races I started in my first car racing season is great.”
“Congratulations to Patryk, we've had some close battles and it's been good fun racing with him. I want to thank all the guys at Motaworld for doing a great job and I also need to say a huge thank you to my family and to the fantastic sponsors who have made this season possible.”
Living in Southwick on the Somerset/Wiltshire border, just 40 miles from Thruxton, Max came into the weekend hoping to pick up the championship at his local circuit. His weekend started badly though, an engine failure in Friday's testing limiting his set up work for the weekend.
Qualifying went better though, the youngster once again showcasing the superb pace he has had all season to book a front row slot alongside Szczerbinski. Max headed into the first race determined to win and after a race long battle with his title rival, he slid past as they headed up Woodham Hill for the final time to take the win. His pace was quick again in race two; picking up the fastest lap of the race, but this was no consolation after seeing his title hopes disappear with the final lap incident.
After a superb debut season in single seater racing now over, Max is looking at a variety of options for 2011, including a test programme in Formula Renault and Formula 3 in the UK, or possibly competing in Formula BMW in Asia.
For dramatic footage of the decisive final lap accident, or for more information on Max and his future endeavours, visit http://maxcornelius.com/
