After the disappointing incident at Knockhill, there’s lots of talk of the blow to Petru Florescu’s championship campaign but, with 225 points still left in the championship, it’s still all to play for.
Mathematically, most of the field is still in with a chance at the championship title, but the top six drivers are all within 30 points of one another. It’s more than likely one of these six will take the championship.
The contenders
Max Fewtrell
Carlin’s Max Fewtrell currently leads the championship with 232 points, and is definitely one of the favourites to be at the top come the end of the season.
Fewtrell is a consistently high scorer and has an average finishing position of sixth so far this season. He’s finished on the podium in ten of the twenty seven races. In fact, there’s only be one race weekend where he didn’t visit the podium, just missing out with a fourth and two fifth places at Oulton Park.
Most of those podiums have been third places. Fewtrell has only taken a single race win, back in April, and has suffered three retirements so far this season.
The teenager leads the championship by three points after Knockhill.
Luis Leeds
Second in the championship, TRS Arden’s Luis Leeds hasn’t really had the same consistency as Fewtrell, but the Australian driver has been a star so far this season.
Leeds finishes range from his three first places (Thruxton, Croft, and Knockhill) to a seventeenth at Knockhill, and he has a single retirement from early on in the season, but his average finish is still about sixth.
The Red Bull backed driver has 227 points, only three places behind Fewtrell and ten points ahead of third place driver.
Devlin DeFrancesco
Third in the championship is Carlin’s Devlin DeFrancesco. The Canadian driver is probably the stronger of the two Carlin drivers in the top three, but he’s had a total of five retirements so far this season and isn’t unknown to make mistakes.
DeFrancesco has four race wins so far and sixth further podiums, but his average finish is only seventh. Most of his finishes are inside the top five, but the number of retirements and a seventeenth back at Donington has dragged his average down.
The Canadian is now third in the championship, ten points behind Leeds.
Sennan Fielding
This season has been pretty much hit and miss with Sennan Fielding, and mostly miss. The JHR Developments driver is fourth in the championship, but has so far taken four race wins and a third place.
Whilst most of his finishes are inside the top five, his record isn’t quite as impressive as that of those ahead of him in the championship. Fielding is definitely a championship contender, but I think he would definitely appreciate some bad luck for the Carlin boys and Leeds.
Fielding is fourth in the championship following Thruxton, a full twenty points behind leader Fewtrell.
James Pull
James Pull, whilst not the lowest Carlin driver in the standings, is probably the least impressive of the four. That’s only by Carlin’s high standards though. Pull’s record is nothing to be sniffed at.
A consistent driver, Pull only has two retirements and, every race he’s finished, he finishes inside the points. Pull has six podiums, but has never stood on the top step, which isn’t fantastic when you consider the fact that Carlin have won nine of the races so far (ten if you count the Knockhill race one win before Florescu excluded).
Like Fielding, Pull winning the championship isn’t unbelievable, but he definitely needs to step up in the last three meetings to get there.
Petru Florescu
And then there’s Petru.
If it weren’t for his disqualification, Florescu would be second in the championship, even if he was still excluded from the second two races.
Up until the Knockhill weekend, Florescu’s season had been going great. In eighteen races, he took five race wins, and two second places. His race win at Knockhill was hardly unexpected. Throwing a punch at his team mate was a little more unexpected.
Will we, in two months’ time, be saying the moment of stupidity at Knockhill was when Florescu lost the championship? Possibly.
Twenty five points behind the race leader, Florescu has a long way to go if he wants to take the championship win and not a lot of time to do it in. But if anybody can do it, Petru can.
The stats
Image Credit: Caroline Rhea
