Alex Lynn enjoyed his best weekend of car racing to date at the Brands Hatch season finale this weekend scoring a superb third place overall and winning the Formula Renault Graduate Cup for young rookie drivers in front of a weekend crowd of 45,000.
The 17-year-old Essex racer took a further two Graduate Cup wins this weekend to take his season total to 15 wins from 20 starts. Even more impressively, Alex produced the drive of his life under enormous pressure to take his first overall podium finish, the ideal conclusion to a very competitive first year of car racing.
Lynn demonstrated his pace on Saturday when he set pole position times in both qualifying sessions; such is the competitiveness of the series however that he would end up eighth on the grid for race one followed by third for race two, just 24/100ths and 11/100ths of a second from first place on the grid. “I was trying so hard to have pole but third is not bad at this point,” said the Fortec Motorsport youngster. “I was pushing really hard and I’m so pleased to be part of a Fortec 1-2-3. In first qualifying I just couldn’t find the time at the crucial point but later on I did justice to where I should be now.”In the first race, Lynn chased experienced Fortec team-mate Riki Christodoulou, a former race winner in British Formula 3, before settling for eighth and netting the Graduate Cup title. “I saw my rival Fabio Gamberini in the barriers and realised it was my championship,” he said. “It wasn’t the most exciting race, but the end result is great – and it’s brilliant to win a title in my first year of car racing.”
In race two, Lynn chased Christodoulou and Tom Blomqvist as the Fortec team scored an extremely popular 1-2-3. Crucially, Alex did a fine job of fending off Blomqvist’s major rival for the title (Lewis Williamson), meaning that he was able to help ensure the overall championship for his team-mate.“Wow! That was a fantastic race and a great way to end the season,” he said. “I’m over the moon. I made one small mistake and Lewis got alongside me but I was able to hold him off and then when he then made a mistake I just got my head down and drove away from him.”
Lynn claimed fastest lap of the leading seven drivers to cap off a great finale to his debut FRUK season. Fortec’s renowned Team Manager and Chief Engineer Mick Kouros said: “Alex has shown this weekend he has the ability to develop and progress a long way in the sport. He has developed his racing skills to the equal of this year’s overall race winners.”
Now for Lynn, who only recently turned 17, comes a rather more sedate test: the theory stage of his driving test, which he sits this Tuesday! Alex will then be back testing on Thursday at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit as he bids to build on a superb first year since graduating from karts. “It’s been a great experience and I feel I’ve progressed so much with the Fortec team so I’m really grateful to all of them,” said Alex. “I should also say a massive Congratulations to my team-mate Tom Blomqvist for winning the overall championship – it’s been a lot of fun racing with him this year.”The Formula Renault UK Championship again enjoyed live coverage of its second race at Brands Hatch on ITV4, and was streamed live on the ITV website. 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 for up to four weeks after the show has been aired.
A detailed review of Alex’ season will be released soon, along with updates as he prepares for 2011.
Click here for the Official Renaultsport web site - designed and built by Racecar
