Carlin’s Max Fewtrell clinched the British Formula 4 championship at Brands Hatch this weekend, taking the race win in the final race of the championship.
Six drivers were mathematically in with a chance at the title heading to the final weekend of the championship, three from Carlin, but it would be Fewtrell who ended up on top.
Race One
Jamie Caroline had set the fastest lap during qualifying, but a technical infringement for the Fortec driver promoted Fewtrell to pole, whilst Caroline would have to start ten seconds behind the rest of the pack.
Straight from lights out, James Pull, who started alongside his team mate, was challenging the pole sitter, managing to get past Fewtrell.
Behind them, Sennan Fielding, another championship contender, was climbing up through the field. The JHR driver shot away from the line to end up fourth, but his climb was cut short when the safety car was brought out.
Billy Monger had found himself in the wall, and the race was paused to clear the car. Elsewhere on track, Devlin DeFrancesco had also gone off track, his car ending up under the barrier and out of the race.
Before the racing could stop though, Fielding found himself in trouble. The championship contender ran too hot into a corner, allowing Raffael Martins through and putting Ayrton Simmons right on his tail.
Luis Leeds was also having problems. An off at the last corner had dropped him back through the pack, but he started to work his way up through the field once the cars had been cleared.
Caroline was another driver who had been making his way through the field after his penalty, but Frank Bird was going to throw a spanner in the works. Bird was late on the breaks, making contact with Caroline. Luckily for the Pirtek based driver there was no damage done for him, though Bird left the incident with his front wing pointing the wrong way.
Now it was a race for the championship contenders to make their ways back up through the field. Fielding and Leeds were both on a recovery mission, trying to catch Pull and Fewtrell at the top of the field.
Fielding managed that the fastest, ending up right on Fewtrell’s tail in the closing stages of the race. The JHR Developments triver left it to the very last moment to make a move on Fewtrell, but had managed to get his nose ahead of the Carlin driver’s just before the chequered flag.
Race Two
A partially reversed grid put Jamie Caroline on pole for race two, with Petru Florescu alongside him and Ayrton Simmons behind him.
Fewtrell and Fielding, the championship leaders, started side by side on the third row of the grid, and immedetly the battle between them was on. Fewtrell left the fight on top, moving up to third whilst Fielding took fifth place.
Simmons, who had fallen away at the beginning of the race, was now building up a bit of a train. Whilst the leaders ran away ahead of him, the rest of the pack battled to find a way through and continue the race.
Florescu, the only Carlin driver to enter the final race without a shot at the championship, was now running ahead of his team mate. Fewtrell was right behind the Romanian, trying to find a way past his team mate as Fielding caught up.
Raffael Martins was the only driver between Fielding and Fewtrell, but he wasn’t going to let the JHR driver past easily. Fielding may have been setting fastest laps, but Martin had stopped him in his tracks. The two came together as Fielding tried to find a way past, but both kept running.
In the end, neither championship driver managed to find their way past their race rival. Fewtrell would finish on the bottom step of the podium whilst Fielding would finish fifth.
Luis Leeds had a fairly anonymous race, still recovering from a difficult race one. The Australian finished outside the points in eleventh, but he would still have enough to be in with an outside chance at the title going into the final race of the season.
Six had become three.
Race Three
Fewtrell would start race three from the best possible position, another pole putting him at the front of the field, with rookie Simmons starting alongside him. Leeds would have the most work to do, needing not only a perfect race but a terrible race for his rivals to take the championship. He started fifth, alongside Fielding, who would need to finish ahead of Fewtrell to take the title.
Fielding started his fight with a move around the outside of the first corner, that lost him any places he’d taken off of the line. He managed to get past Bird and tucked in behind Leeds, who’d gotten a much better start than he had.
Whilst Fewtrell continued untroubled at the front of the field, Fielding found a way past Leeds, and found himself on the tail of a Carlin. This wasn’t the Carlin he was after though, Pull the next man for Fielding to attack.
The JHR Driver was late on the breaks, trying to find any way past the Carlin, but Pull was defending well, allowing his team mate to build up a strong lead.
Eventually, Fielding found his way past Pull, promoting him to third behind Simmons. The rookie driver had nothing to fight for in terms of the championship, but that wasn’t going to stop him trying. He defended well against the championship contender, whilst Fielding himself wasn’t putting up a perfect fight.
The Amigos backed driver was a touch wide at times, never quite able to get close enough to Simmons. In the end, he crossed the line third, taking second in the title whilst Fewtrell, unchallenged in the lead of the race, would take the title.
Image Credit: Caroline Rhea
