Alex Lynn proved one of the stars of the Formula Renault UK Championship at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit as he charged up the field to finish eighth overall – and make it five wins out of five in the Graduate Cup for young rookie drivers – after a session-ending crash in qualifying.
The 16-year-old went off the road at the daunting, high-speed Paddock Hill Bend in the first qualifying session. After getting the all-clear from the medical centre, he was hampered in qualifying for the second race by getting caught on the wrong tyres on a drying circuit.
But Alex, competing in just his fifth car -race meeting since his graduation from karts, made a series of overtaking moves on more-experienced rivals to carry his Fortec Motorsport car from 13th position on the grid to eighth.
Lynn had held pole position briefly for this race on a circuit that was drying after a shower of rain, but rivals switched onto slick tyres and relegated him to 13th place. “I was going to either be the hero or the loser,” he said, “and unfortunately it was the latter. It was my decision to stay on rain tyres. There was still loads of spray on the circuit and there was only five minutes left. As the laps went by it still said P1 on my pitboard, until the crucial moments!
“In the first session, I was getting faster and faster. The accident gave the lads a lot of work to do but when you’re pushing hard that’s going to happen sometimes. It’s a shame because I ended up 11th, but could have been higher. I’d like to say thanks to the team for putting the car back together so well, but particularly Pat my ace mechanic as well as Harvey and Steve off the other cars who helped masses too.”
Due to torrential rain, the first race was not run (instead, it will probably be run as a third race at a meeting later this season). But the second race did, and took place with the field on slick tyres on a drying circuit. Alex instantly made up places off the grid, passing his main Graduate Cup rival, and progressed throughout the race. By the finish, he was in the multi-car battle for fifth position, and finally placed eighth.
“It was a really tricky race,” he said. “The lights came on and went off so quickly at the start that others were caught out, so I made up places immediately. I held my ground and then got involved in a really good tussle. I thought the guys in front were going to go off on the last lap – they didn’t but I passed one of them! It was a great race and I’m really happy to finish eighth from 13th on the grid. The decision not to run the first race was the right one. It would have been impossible to race in those conditions.”
Alex’ engineer Mark Godwin added: “It was a very good drive. Considering where he started, and when you look at the experienced drivers that were behind him, he did a very good job. He could easily have been fifth, which would’ve been a fantastic result. We made some mistakes in qualifying which we all learned from and came out smelling of roses!”
There is now a long wait until the next round of the Formula Renault UK Championship, at Oulton Park in Cheshire on the June 5/6 weekend, but in the interim there are three official test sessions, during which newcomer Lynn will be able to gain crucial experience to take on the Formula Renault elite.
The Formula Renault UK Championship again enjoyed live coverage at Brands Hatch on ITV4, and was streamed live on itv.com. Action will be shown in the Motorsport UK series, with two repeats each week on ITV4 and one on ITV1. A further showing will be made on the Men & Motors channel. The Motorsport UK audience figure for Formula Renault UK in 2009 was 4,750,000.
