Sixteen-year-old racer Alex Lynn put in two strong performances at the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk in the latest round of the Formula Renault UK Championship.
Lynn, finished 11th in both races to keep himself firmly in the battle for ninth spot in the overall championship in his first season since graduating from karts. Lynn also claimed two victories in the Graduate Cup class for young rookie drivers to extend his championship lead in that division.
With the Fortec Motorsport team regrouping after a change in its management structure, Lynn lapped 13th fastest in qualifying for the first race, which took place in damp conditions. He was among the contenders for pole position in the early stages when the track was at its most slippery, but dropped back as the circuit dried.
Later on, he was 14th in qualifying for race two as competitors dashed onto the track in a bid to get a strong time in before rain fell. “The data shows that we'd have been on the front two rows if I'd put the lap together better,” said Lynn. “So that’s really frustrating, because I know the time is there, but I’m not using the tyres to the ultimate at the start of their life. I should be doing my best time on the second lap, but I’m doing it on the sixth or seventh. It’s all down to practice, and I’m confident that I can do that – I’m only at the start of my career and I’m happy that I’m learning every time I go out on the track.”
Alex made a terrific start to the first race to vault to 11th. A few laps into the race he lost two positions, including one to Fortec team-mate Riki Christodoulou, who last year won a round of the British Formula 3 Championship at Snetterton. Lynn then recovered two places in the closing stages to finish 11th.
“My start was mega – the best I’ve made all year,” he said. “The car worked really well the first couple of laps, but I made a mistake. I tried to pass Thomas Hylkema in front of me, but he defended well and Riki passed me into the next corner. I finally passed Hylkema into the first corner – which I was pretty pleased about.”
In the second race, Lynn again made up places on the opening lap to run in 11th place. He got involved in an enormous fight for ninth and was chasing Christodoulou, but was unable to move up. “It was tough to race and I had to really push the car to keep up with the guys ahead,” said Lynn.
New team manager Mick Kouros, who is also engineering Lynn, said: “Considering Alex has had a change of race engineer, he’s done very well adapting and focusing on doing his job to the best of his ability. I feel he’s shown enormous progress and applied himself very well. His feedback is very impressive for this stage of his career, equal to plenty of more experienced drivers. Due to that, we were able to finish the weekend with a faster car than we started with.”
Next on the calendar for Lynn is the Silverstone National circuit on August 21/22, where the Formula Renault field will get three races, to make up for the one lost to rain at Brands Hatch back in May.
The Formula Renault UK Championship again enjoyed live coverage of its second race at Snetterton 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. Each episode can also be viewed through the ITV player on the ITV website - itv.com/catchup - for up to four weeks after the show has been aired.
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