Alex Lynn kept his strong momentum up during his rookie British Formula 3 International Series season by taking another podium finish on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit.
Lynn, who was third in the first of three races over the weekend, added a fourth and an eighth to his tally and is now just one point away from taking fourth in the championship with his Mercedes-powered Fortec Motorsport Dallara.
The 18-year-old laid the foundations for his weekend with a strong qualifying performance, taking fourth on the grid for race one and third for race three after finding some good pace between Friday’s test and Saturday’s qualifying session.
“We found a lot of speed since the test so I’m happy with that,” he said. “I just tried to hang it on the line and push as hard as I could, and managed to stick it somewhere near the front. From where we were in testing that was a good result. My engineer, Russell Dixon, and I worked hard to come into the morning with a quick set-up.”
Alex made a terrific start to the opening race to go second, but was repassed by front-row man Jazeman Jaafar. From then on he did a good job to keep Carlos Sainz Jr at bay to take the latest in his string of podiums.
“I didn’t have the pace of the leading two" said Alex, "but if you’d told me before qualifying that I would be third I’d be very pleased.”
The result put Lynn ninth on the grid for the reversed-grid race. Unfortunately, after overnight rain he was on the slippery side of the grid and got boxed in behind fellow Briton Harry Tincknell off the line. From then on he ran in the middle of a big bunch to finish eighth.
In the third race, Alex just managed to avoid a first-corner collision between Sainz and Serralles and settled into fourth place. As the race wore on he began to catch third man Tincknell, and was just half a second adrift at the chequered flag.
“I was getting squeezed by Carlos and Felix, so I had to tap my brake pedal,” said Lynn, who is a member of the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy, the MSA’s Team UK and the British Racing Drivers Club’s SuperStars programme.
“I looked after my tyres well and started taking it easy with about 10 laps to go. The gap to Harry got bigger but then, because I’d saved my tyres, I was able to find quite a lot of pace again, but it would have been hard to find a way through.
“It’s been another good weekend. I’ve got to be happy with two top-four results, but I’m beginning to get a bit fed up with finishing second and third – I need a win now!”
The next British F3 round is just days away, with the teams venturing to the German city of Nuremberg for a round on the famous Norisring street circuit on June 29-July 1.
