Front row starts and fastest lap aided Max Chilton’s F3 campaign and he moved up to 4th place in the Championship after the latest races at Silverstone’s International circuit.

Max came home in 4th and 7th places respectively in Sunday’s two races, but this doesn’t reflect his competitiveness over the weekend, especially as he was battling for the lead in the second race, only to be knocked out of contention. His recovery drive, including setting the race’s fastest lap, got him back up to 7th place and the points gained together with the ones from the earlier race, elevated Max to 4th place in the standings and consolidated his position as the highest placed British driver.

In Saturday’s qualifying, Max confirmed his status as the fastest British driver, putting his Carlin Motorsport Dallara Volkswagen on the front row in both of the sessions, missing out on pole position by just one thousandth of a second in the later session.

“It was a pretty good day,” he commented after qualifying. “I think I probably deserved second in the first qualifying session; Dan did a good job, but the second session was ridiculously close and I missed pole by just 0.001 seconds.  But I’m not too disappointed; I’m happy with the day and getting two second places on the grid. Hopefully I can get two clean starts and get away well tomorrow and finish on the podium in both races.”

Unfortunately, after a slow getaway in the first race on Sunday, Max found himself down in 4th place and could do nothing to improve his position in an uneventful and processional race.

“The start was my main problem,” he said afterwards. “I lost the race at the start. It wasn’t that bad, but the Hitech cars got really good starts which made it look worse. Around Silverstone it’s really hard to overtake. I got fairly close to Grubmuller and thought I might be able to challenge for third, but there were a few games being played ahead of us and I had to settle for fourth. I’m pretty confident ahead of the next race as I’m starting from second again, so I’m hoping I can get a better result.”

The second race was altogether more eventful. A good getaway and strong opening lap saw Max put the race leader under pressure right from the start. He was embroiled in a three way fight for the lead only to lose his opportunity of a race win when, having demoted Nakajima, the Japanese driver misjudged his approach to a corner, bounced off the kerb and hit Max’s rear wheel. This knocked Max off the track and although he recovered, another incident resulted in a grassy excursion and he was relegated way down the field.

A fine recovery drive with more determined overtaking got him back up to eventually finish 7th and in doing so he set the race’s fastest lap. This was some consolation, but a disappointed Max was certain the race win would have been his if he hadn’t been hit in the battle for the lead.

“My car was so good in that race,” he explained. “I was being held up behind Nakajima who was blocking. If he hadn’t hit me I’m sure I would have just driven away, the car was that good.”

The next races in the championship take place at the new Algarve circuit in Portugal in four weeks time.