Mitchell Hale has retained his Formula Renault BARC Championship lead in the fifth round out of six at Rockingham Motor Speedway in Northamptonshire.

As a result, the 16-year-old continues to hold a 16-point advantage with just one round remaining, at the super-fast Thruxton circuit in Hampshire on October 17.

After finishing fifth and sixth in the two races at Rockingham, Hale also won a remarkable prize on offer to the championship leader at the end of the weekend: a free prize test with a leading Formula Renault Eurocup team at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, home of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Rockingham was a tough weekend for Hale, who has been a sensation in his debut season of single-seater racing. He qualified his Fortec Motorsport-run car sixth for the opening race, but improved that to take third on the grid for race two.

Mitchell recovered from a poor start, during which he dropped to seventh, to quickly recover to sixth in the first race. In the second race he made a fantastic getaway to take the lead, but a small error dropped him to second at the end of the opening lap. Just over a lap later, another slip, during which he ran wide, dropped him to fifth.

“It was a hard weekend,” he summarised. “We didn’t have the speed we normally do, but I should have come in the top three in the second race if I hadn’t made a couple of mistakes, and then I just didn’t have enough speed to get the places back on a circuit where it’s so tough to overtake. But I’ve still got my championship lead so that’s good.”

Hale is confident heading into the final round at Thruxton. “I like Thruxton,” he said. “It’s a good circuit and I’m confident I can be fast there and take the title.”

He was also very happy with the Barcelona test. “I’ve been there before – I tested a Formula Renault there when I was 14, before we decided to do Ginetta Juniors first. It’s a really awesome track so I’m looking forward to the test.”