George Russell is celebrating again after taking his second consecutive win in the BRDC Formula 4 Championship at Silverstone. The 16 year old romped away after rocketing from sixth on the grid to third and avoiding the bumping and bashing antics of the pole man. Arjun Maini took his maiden podium finish to make it a 1-2 for Lanan Racing with Douglas Motorsport’s Diego Menchaca in third. Three cars were hit with post-race penalties which amended the result below the podium level.
The first podium lockout in BRDC F4 history wasn’t to be as the third Lanan machine, with Struan Moore at the wheel, became embroiled in a battle with MGR Motorsport’s Chris Middlehurst for fourth place, allowing Menchaca to consolidate his position. The reigning Protyre Formula Renault champion eventually triumphed in this clash with pole sitter, Sennan Fielding in sixth.
Fielding was one of the drivers hit by a penalty after the race when he was found to have caused a collision. The HHC Motorsport driver initially had a good getaway but was caught and passed by Sean Walkinshaw Racing’s Nicolas Beer on the opening lap. In a clumsy move to retake the lead, Fielding put the Dane out of action and spun his way to 14th. His recovery to sixth makes his exclusion for the move all the more bitter.
With Fielding out of the result, fellow HHC driver Will Palmer took sixth ahead of Charlie Eastwood’s Douglas machine. This is the first time that the Rockingham based outfit have had two cars in the top ten of a BRDC F4 classification. Still it gets better as Rodrigo Fonseca took ninth, promoted to eighth after the race in the third of three Douglas run F4-013s. Gustavo Lima took the final top ten spot on the road though race 1 winner Raoul Hyman was promoted to tenth after the stewards deliberations.
There was more action further down the field. David Wagner in the second MGR Motorsport car took eleventh on the road but tumbled four places after meeting with the Clark of the Course. He was handed a ten second penalty for a bash with Hyman, who fell to 20th before fighting back to eleventh, (tenth in the amended result). That promoted Rahul Raj Mayer and Gaetano di Mauro for Hillspeed and Petroball Racing respectively to eleventh and twelfth with Jordan Albert making the final jump up to thirteenth.
Albert is a link to the third and final post-race declaration after he clashed with Enigma Motorsport’s Falco Wauer. The American was judged to be at fault for the coming together and will start the first race at Brands Hatch five places below his qualifying position.
Now a double race winner, Russell was enthusiastic when he spoke post-race saying, “It’s been a really good job by the team this weekend. We finished first and third in the second race and now first and second, so it’s been a fantastic weekend for us and it wouldn’t have been so good if it wasn’t for their efforts.
“The car has been very consistent all weekend and it’s paid off. Getting the gap after the first couple of laps and being able to maintain it was brilliant.”
