BRDC Formula 4 Championship chase takes shape at Snetterton

10/09/2013

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With the final three races of the 24 race series still to go at Donington Park on the 28th/29th September, Jake Hughes extended his grip on the inaugural BRDC Formula 4 championship with two podiums and an eighth place finish in the triple-header encounters at the Snetterton 300 circuit, Norfolk, on September 7th/8th. Driving for the Lanan Racing team, the 19 year old Birmingham-based Hughes now has a 45 points cushion in the lead of the drivers' standings.

It might have turned out very differently, however. Seb Morris, Hughes's closest rival in the points standings going into the weekend, seemed to have broken his season long race-winning drought in Race 2 on Sunday morning, but his narrow victory over Jack Barlow was excluded from the results after the stewards found his car to have infringed the technical regulations.

Thus, pending an appeal from his Hillspeed team, Morris has been relegated to third behind Sean Walkinshaw Racing's Barlow in the championship table, but with a fighting come-back second place podium in Race 3 to add to his seventh place finish in Race 1, Morris retains a window of opportunity to turn things around and still challenge for the season's top honours at Donington. Hughes, Barlow and three other drivers who remain in a mathematical running for the title – Matty Graham, Charlie Robertson and Jake Dalton – will doubtless have their own thoughts on that scenario. Donington is all set to be a thriller.

By no means overlooked in the battle for the title race were victories for Jake Dalton in Race 1 – an assured performance from third on the grid behind Hughes and James Fletcher – and Fletcher in Race 3, the Ascot driver delivering an out-of-sight performance from pole position to register the biggest winning margin – 10.69 seconds - of the season to date. Struan Moore and Dalton respectively claimed the minor podium spots in Race 1, while Morris (as noted) was second and Moore back on the podium again in third place in Race 3. Having inherited Morris's penalised victory in Race 2, Barlow pipped Hughes to the top of the podium by less than a second, with Matty Graham third.

There remains one notable record to be established in this fiercely competitive new BRDC championship: we still wait to see if any driver can achieve more than one race victory in a weekend. Hughes will be hoping that situation stays unchanged - unless of course he does it himself! – but if any of his closest challengers does the trick at Donington, who knows what the final reckoning will look like?

A dedicated 1 hour recorded programme is televised on ITV 4 on the Sunday following every BRDC Formula 4 race weekend. Complete race reports and comprehensive information on the championship can be viewed at www.formula4.com

Comma is Technical Partner to the BRDC F4 Championship. Comma supplies every team in the BRDC F4 Championship with the lubricants and chemicals they need to compete; Comma is appointed to do so by MotorSport Vision, one of the world's leading operators and promoters of motorsport.