Alex Lynn scored another win in slippery conditions at Croft to cement his position as Formula Renault UK Championship leader, taking his tally to 8 wins from 10 starts.
Essex racer Lynn won by nearly 12 seconds to extend his points advantage to 58 in the series for up-and-coming young drivers.
The latest victory was a tonic after a disappointing opening race, which ended with a fifth place finish – the first time Lynn has been out of the top two this season.
Lynn took second place on the grid for the first race in wet conditions. He then aced pole position for the second race, in a dry qualifying session (but on a circuit that was slippery at the start) to take pole position by 0.6 seconds.
“I only got three or four laps in first qualifying because our strategy was to join the session a bit later,” said 17-year-old Lynn. “I’m pretty happy to still be on the front row, and confident that if we’d been out a bit earlier I could have taken pole. In race trim the car is mint and I’m confident our race pace will be strong. “Second qualifying was pretty good. I just went flat-out after two warm-up laps. I’m happy with that one!”
Unfortunately, a new clutch plate made it very difficult for Lynn to control the clutch at the start of the race, meaning a poor getaway and a first-corner position of fifth. Worse still, he was hit by Josh Hill, damaging his front wing and losing crucial front-end grip as a result.
He quickly passed Hill, son of 1996 World Champion Damon, to take fourth before chasing Fortec Motorsport team-mate Oliver Rowland. With four laps remaining Alex tried a move on Rowland on the outside into Tower Bend that didn’t pay off and dropped him to fifth, “It was a bit of an eventful start,” said Lynn, who from this year is a member of two highly-prestigious young-driver talent initiatives: the MSA Team UK scheme and the British Racing Drivers Club’s SuperStars programme.
“There was something amiss with the clutch – it was like an on-off switch. Josh sideswiped me and bent my front wing, but our pace was pretty good. I guess it was just one of those races that don’t go quite right but I’m glad that I had the pace, even with the damage, and was determined to make amends in race two.”
In the second race, Alex drove away from the pack as showers sprinkled rain on the track. He was three seconds ahead within two laps, and then gradually pulled away in tough conditions as most of his title rivals had incidents.
Even Lynn was not exempt: “I went off on one lap at the first corner. There was a rain cloud at Sunny early in the race and then it moved over to the first two corners and caught me out! Life was difficult, but in the end the track was drying out.
“I had my team-mate Mitchell Gilbert in second and he did a fantastic job – that was a mega drive from him and he made it a lot easier for me by keeping everyone behind him, and I just drove away.
Fortec Motorsport team manager and engineer Russell Dixon said: “Alex bounced back well from the disappointment of Saturday’s race with a dominant win. We’re only at the halfway stage of the season and he’s already taken eight wins from 10 races, so I’m quite happy with how it’s going”.
As part of the ultra-popular British Touring Car Championship package, the Formula Renault UK Championship enjoyed live coverage of its second race at Croft on ITV4 and ITV4 HD, and was streamed live at itv.com/touringcars. The next race weekend is at Snetterton, in Norfolk, on August 6/7.
