Carter Williams showed tremendous pace in the opening 2019 F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford EcoBoost race of the Thruxton weekend to take his maiden victory in the series, with Zane Maloney‘s title lead cut by virtue of a time penalty.
American Williams held a 3.5 second lead over second placed Sebastian Alvarez, pulling clear off the line to jump ahead of pole-sitter Luke Browning on the opening lap.
With his rivals squabbling for position behind, the 19-year-old streaked clear out front unchallenged and made his feelings quite clear after the race.
“It feels fantastic,” Williams exclaimed. “I’m ecstatic, I felt great. The car was a bit loose, the touring car rubber does something funky to the track so you could definitely feel that going around on the new tarmac.
“We knew we were quick in practice and on old tyres we had mega pace so I just knew to get out front in the first couple of laps and just drive away.”
Behind him, championship contender Alvarez set the fastest lap on his way to second place as well as cutting the points deficit to title leader Zane Maloney to 44 points.
“It was a good race,” the Mexican remarked. “At the beginning I got a bit unlucky, there was some contact and I tried avoiding it and overtaking them which just didn’t work out and I lost places.
“But then we showed our speed and overtook one by one to get back to second.”
Third place went to JHR‘s Skelton after a hotly contested battle with pole-sitter Browning and Alvarez early in the race. After dispatching of Browning, Skelton was soon caught by Alvarez, who was determined to make up lost ground.
The pair dashed and diced with each other, swapping places into Club chicane lap after lap before Alvarez finally managed to bridge a gap to the Brit.
Browning was unable to convert his maiden pole position into a win. The Kingsley-based driver lost ground on lap one and was eventually swallowed up by the chasing pack. However, he managed to keep hold of fourth place, aided by Maloney’s penalty.
Fifth spot belonged to Arden‘s Tommy Foster, who made up good ground from his eighth place starting position.
Behind him came Maloney, who ran as high as second until he was handed a five-second time penalty for multiple track limits infringements. The Barbadian would have finished fifth but contact with Skelton at Club on the final lap meant the Carlin driver lost even more time as a result.
Alex Connor slotted home in seventh in a race of his own, with JHR’s Alex Walker continuing to settle into the series in eighth.
Reema Juffali enjoyed yet another points finish in ninth after capitalising on the battles up ahead and was unlucky to lose eighth to Walker on the final lap.
Roberto Faria rounded out the points finishers in tenth for Fortec, just a second clear of team-mate Mariano Martinez.
Bart Horsten and Louis Foster both had to pit for new front wings after separate incidents, dropping them to 12th and 13th and out of the points.
The result means Maloney’s title lead now stands at 44 points to Alvarez with the reverse grid race coming up later today at 17:20.
