Boosting his incredible podium tally for the year to 17 after finishing third in both of the weekend’s races, the 17-year-old HHC Motorsport driver heads into the decisive triple-header next month with a 34 point lead when the category’s ‘drop score’ rule is applied.
With each competitor required to subtract their two lowest scores of the season before calculating final totals, Charlie’s stunning consistency actually works against him as his lead on overall scores at the present time stands at a magnificent 56 points.
In round 23 at Silverstone on Sunday morning, the Whyteleafe racer produced a fantastic drive where he served up one of the passes of the weekend, around the outside at the Brooklands left-hander, to importantly take third position from chief title rival Carl Breeze.
Starting the encounter from fourth on the grid, having qualified just 0.173 seconds shy of pole position, Charlie made a good getaway but had nowhere to go at Copse on the inside line and found himself bottled up.
Although edged down to fifth position on the run to Becketts, the series leader got good drive out of the turn and was on the outside line into Brooklands before successfully regaining fourth place into Luffield shortly before the Safety Car was deployed.
At the re-start on the sixth tour, Charlie held position and immediately started to pressurise Breeze for third place. Lapping incredibly consistently, the Scottish teenager was a real thorn in his rival’s side and he reduced the gap to a mere 0.2 seconds into lap 21. Despite strong defence from Breeze, at Brooklands on lap 22 Charlie produced a stunning pass around the outside to take third place.
Immediately pulling away and setting about closing down the gap to second placed Andrew Watson, Charlie closed to within just 0.5 seconds of his rival at the finish after setting his best lap of the race on the final tour.
“Coming into this weekend Carl [Breeze] said I was the favourite for the championship and had one hand on the trophy, so I had to demonstrate I wasn’t just going to sit back and let him control things”, said the Investigo and Blackstar-backed racer, “The best form of defence is attack in my mind and that was a really good move, around the outside at Brooklands – it’s unusual in a GT car.
“I made a really good jump off the line at the start, I got up the inside of Jamie [Orton] but he shut the door – which was fair enough – so I had to back off a little bit and that lost me momentum and allowed Carl through. That was the one thing I didn’t want but I just had to get my head down and work out how I could get past him. We did it in the end with a great move, I’m really pleased.”
Starting round 24 in third position, the Scotsman made a great launch off the line but a bid to try and move into second on the outside at Copse didn’t work out and Charlie was instead edged down to fourth place.
Hungry to get back into the podium placings, he immediately sought a way past third placed Breeze and again delivered a stunning move at Brooklands on lap two to grab the position just prior to the Safety Car making an appearance. After four laps under caution, racing resumed on lap seven and Charlie swarmed all over the back of Watson’s car but, in the end, he had to settle for third again.
“I knew it was crucial to score as many points as I could this weekend”, said Charlie, “Maybe not risking everything, but the opportunities presented themselves in both races and I was able to take them. Taking two podiums and extending my championship lead into Brands Hatch is great.”
Charlie’s ‘home’ track, Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit, will host the grand finale of the Michelin Ginetta GT4 SuperCup season on 11th/12th October.
Provisional 2014 Michelin Ginetta GT4 SuperCup Driver Standings (after Rd24 minus drop scores):1st Charlie Robertson, 623pts
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