BRDC Formula 4 2014 - Brands Hatch

01/09/2014

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At one stage during the weekend, George Russell (Lanan Racing) came within a single point of surrendering the lead of the 2014 BRDC Formula 4 championship which he had headed since the first event at Silverstone over four months ago. The rot set in early for the talented 16 year old from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire when he crashed out after just two laps of the qualifying session, leaving him stranded dead last on the grid for the first of the weekend's three races over the 2.43 mile Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. The upshot was that he illuminated an otherwise rather processional Race 1 on Saturday afternoon, August 30th, ripping through the pack to wind up tenth in a tussle with Comma-sponsored Will Palmer (HHC Motorsport) and Gustavo Lima (Hillspeed) for the eighth place which would have given him the pole for the top-8 reverse grid Race 2 on Sunday morning.

As things transpired, Russell did himself an unwitting favour, because he avoided becoming involved when the Race 2 leaders – headed at that point by pole-man Palmer - got themselves into a complete muddle at Druids on lap three. Russell, having started tenth, emerged from the fracas in third place, a position he held to the end behind India's Arjun Maini (Lanan Racing) and Chris Middlehurst (MGR Motorsport) who claimed his maiden Formula 4 victory.
By claiming fifth in Race 3, Russell topped up his weekend's points score to 50, thus maintaining a tenuous championship lead – reduced to just 9 points - over Maini, who was the weekend's stand-out performer with a trio of podiums, finishing third in Race 1, second in Race 2 and winning the final encounter for good measure. With a total of 81 points from his Brands Hatch campaign, Maini leapt to second in the championship, displacing to third South African Raoul Hyman (HHC Motorsports) who had been sharing the spot with Palmer.

Comma's man will likely be reflecting on the might-have-been possibilities of his weekend, during which he had an 'off' in official practise but managed to finish eighth from tenth on the grid in Race 1, suffered severely to finish seventh following the third lap melée in Race 2 and crashed out on the final lap while disputing eighth place with Gustavo Lima (Hillspeed) in Race 3. He's now fifth in the table, 30 points adrift of his HHC team-mate Senna Fielding, who just missed out on a podium in Race 3 following a rather distant sixth place in Race 1 and ninth in Race 2.

Apart from Maini, the drivers with perhaps most to smile about from the weekend were the two other race winners – Gaetano Di Mauro (Petroball Racing) in the opener and Middlehurst in Race 2 – and Struan Moore (Lanan Racing) who took second place in Race 1, sixth in Race 2 and was back on the podium in third place in Race 3. He holds on to sixth in the points table. Di Mauro – the Brazilian protégé of former Formula 1 racer Rubens Barrichello – led from start to finish of Race 1 to record his first Formula 4 victory, and pushed Maini all the way to claim the second podium spot in Race 3, moving him from tenth to eighth on the championship scoreboard. Middlehurst earned his maiden Formula 4 win the hard professional way, forcing an error from Maini in the latter stages of Race 2 and retaining seventh position in the championship behind Moore.
Also having a good weekend was the greatly improved Jordan Albert (Sean Walkinshaw Racing), who found his real racing groove with fifth place in both Races 1 & 2 and seventh in Race 3 for a harvest of 50 points, promoting him to eleventh in the championship table.

Comma – a brand of Cosan Lubricants International - is Technical Partner to BRDC Formula 4, and in addition to sponsoring Will Palmer in the 24 race series, supplies lubricants, coolants and maintenance chemicals to all teams competing in the championship. All rounds of the BRDC F4 Championship are broadcast free-to-air on ITV 4 in an hour-long standalone show screened one week after each of the eight events in a prime-time Sunday evening slot.Coverage on ITV4 also includes a further weekday evening repeat.

For live race reports, championship details, driver interviews, news and inside information on the championship, teams and drivers, visit the excellent BRDC Formula 4 website at www.formula4.com