BRDC Formula 4

O’Brien Wins in Wet Conditions at Rockingham

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Michael O’Brien, who started on pole managed to win his first race of the season after many of his rivals spun, because of tricky conditions. His lead was rarely challenged as Harrison Newey drove an excellent race from the back of the grid.

After two green flag laps the 20 minute race finally got under way with O’Brien leading at the end of the first lap. However; there were incidents behind, as the wet track caused Jack Bartholomew and Paul Seiljes to drop positions. O’Brien built his lead, while Jack Lang spun off at the Deene hairpin at the start of the second lap. This concluded a poor race in which he’d also spun in the warm-up.

As a result the Safety Car was deployed and the field tried to get use to the wet track conditions. O’Brien lead from Jordan Albert, Chris Mealin, Ciaren Haggerty and Tom Jackson. As the safety car pulled in, the cars continued with 12 minutes to go.

Mistakes for Mealin, Bartholomew and Albert saw them drop positions as Akhil Rabindra and Harrison Newey made the most of it, Newey was now up sixth after starting last. O’Brein extended his lead to two seconds over the chasing Haggerty, but the curse of the second position saw him run off at Chapman and then pit and retire because of a puncture. There were also problems for Rabindra who temporarily dropped to eighth before re-passing Rodrigo Fonseca and Mealin.

There was progress from Will Palmer who worked his way up to ninth as the HHC Motorsport team tried to salvage a good result. However; the fighting behind had meant the top four of O’Brien, Jackson, Albert and Newey had broken away at the front, with Newey now setting the fastest lap. While O’Brien’s lead extended to 3.1 seconds.

A strong finish for Bartholomew was eradicated after his second spin dropped him down the order with two minutes left to race. With the end in sight, Jackson started to gain on O’Brien, cutting the gap to 1.5 seconds also setting the fastest lap, a 1:38.937.

It proved too little, too late however, with O’Brien taking victory from Jackson and Albert, who held off Newey in the final stages to take the final podium place. While, Palmer, Mealin, Rabindra and Fonseca rounded out the top eight.

Rockingham Race 2 Result

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Credit: Nick Smith / TheImageTeam.com
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Single-Seater Specialist who worked for TCF from 2015-19. Come finding me wandering the paddock.
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