Race 1 & 2 F4 Summer Challenge

Free practice

Free practice went well for me. I was able to keep improving and was consistently in the top 5 for all 4 free practice sessions, which gave me good confidence for my first race in this series and I felt safe in the car and on the track. One of the challenges in this series is definitely the traffic on the track. With 60 cars entered, it can get very tight and a clean, clear lap is difficult to get.

Qualifying 

I struggled a bit in qualifying. We got our tactics a bit messed up and ended up in quite a bit of traffic on the track. Despite an over all fastest second sector, I didn’t manage to set the pace I could have shown. As a result, I qualified for the start in 10th place.  

Race 1

I got off to a great start for the first race and was able to make up a place before the first corner. I was fast throughout the race and was able to fight my way forwards efficiently. The last two laps were very close again in the battle for 3rd place, which I missed by half a car length in the end, so I finished in 4th place.

Race 2

I started the second race in 7th place. Unfortunately, the start went horribly wrong, the two cars in front of me made a jump start, which irritated me so much that I made one myself. As a result, I got a drive-through penalty and had to go through the pit lane. After this worst-case start, I got back into the race in 32nd place and the chase to catch up began. I managed it pretty well. I was able to overtake 10 cars in one lap and was partly the fastest car on track. Thanks to this fast and consistent pace, I was able to fight my way back up to 11th place after this miserable start. 

Not ideal, but you have to make the best of mistakes and take what you’ve learnt with you for the next race.