Alex Lynn moved to within touching distance of the Certina Formula Renault UK Championship title with another strong performance at Brands Hatch.
Lynn, 18, claimed second place in the opening race of the day, and was all set for another strong result in race two when he was given a drive-through penalty while leading for jumping the start. Although Alex raced back to finish ninth, it agonisingly left him one point short of clinching the title – won in the past by Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton – with one race weekend to spare.
With his Fortec Motorsport machine again performing well, Lynn was focusing very much on title rival Tio Ellinas. He comfortably outpaced the Cypriot in both qualifying sessions and placed second to team-mate Oliver Rowland.
“To be fair the first session was really good – Olly and I were quite a bit faster than the rest, so the Fortec cars are obviously working really well. Second is not the end of the world, especially being ahead of Tio.
“It was the same story in the second session. I might have been able to take pole but I didn’t have the best luck in traffic. Still, it was another good one championship-wise.”
Essex racer Lynn had to fend off a strong challenge from Ellinas in the first race, and there was a reprisal of this when the safety car appeared late in the race. “Tio was really racey,” said Alex. “He tried quite a few times to get me and I had to defend heavily. About three times he drew alongside on the back straight – he knew from the maths what he needed to do for the title. With Olly showing so much speed this weekend, I just had to play a defensive game.”
That became an attacking game in race two when a drive-through penalty left Lynn at the back of the field. “I saw Olly twitch slightly on pole – I was a little tense and it was enough to put me off. Then I looked up and saw the lights still on, but knew I had to just get on with it and gunned it. I had a lot of fun with some overtaking manoeuvres and in the end I saved some pretty good points. The car was very fast.”
Team manager Russell Dixon, who also engineers Lynn’s car, said: “Results-wise it hasn’t been his best weekend – especially after 11 wins this season! Obviously there’s a little bit of pressure at this stage of the season and a slip like that is very easy to do. But he’s still driving very well, he’s very fast and he’s got one hand on the title now. Bring on the final round!”
From this year, Lynn 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. He has also secured one of the MSA’s two nominations to go forward as a candidate to become a member of the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy.
As part of the ultra-popular British Touring Car Championship package, the Certina Formula Renault UK Championship enjoyed live coverage of its second race at Brands Hatch on ITV4 and ITV4 HD, and was streamed live at itv.com/touringcars.
