Rising young motorsport star Alex Lynn is now a winner in the British Formula 3 International Series after carving through from fourth to victory in a thrilling race on the British Grand Prix circuit at Silverstone.
The 18-year-old Englishman, a rookie in F3 after dominating the Formula Renault UK Championship in 2011, was comfortably the fastest driver of the weekend. Only a jumped-start penalty in Saturdays race prevented him from making it a double win in his Mercedes-powered Fortec Motorsport Dallara.
Lynn laid the groundwork with a storming performance in qualifying, setting three laps quicker than anyone else and claiming pole position for races one and threethe first time he has started from the top spot in British F3.
I wasnt getting lap times as I normally do on my dash, said Lynn. I did a lap that I thought wasnt that good so I was surprised when my engineer Russell Dixon came on the radio and said P1. I then did another two laps that were quicker than anyone else. I just threw caution to the wind and Im so happy for the teamthey stayed until ten oclock after testing on Friday working on the car and it was so good.
Alex utterly dominated the first race, taking the chequered flag more than 10 seconds clear, but after the race he was one of the leading drivers to be given a 30-second time penalty for starting just before the lights went out. Such was his superiority that this only demoted him to fourth place.
Looking at the video evidence, it does look like a jumped start, he said. Its a bit annoying but it is what it is. Russell was on the radio telling me to push like hell, because we didnt know if Id get a penalty. I was just in the zone. Everything was perfect until the decision after the race, but I have to accept it.
From sixth at the start of the reversed-grid race, Lynn moved up to fourth at the first corner and then leapfrogged to second when Jack Harvey and Pipo Derani tangled in front of him. He then put the pressure on title-contending team-mate Felix Serralles for the win. On the penultimate lap, Serralles made a mistake and Alex got alongside, but had to move onto the grass when Serralles moved over to claim his line for the next bend and spun. He recovered to finish fifth.
We raced each other really hard but Felix was also quite fair, said Alex. I kept it lit as he was taking his line, but what I should have done was anticipated it better and launched my attack a little bit later on the next straight. Still, I had that much pace that Id have been disappointed in myself not to make a move!
In the final race, Lynn lost the lead when Jazeman Jaafar passed him at Becketts on the opening lap. That put Alex off line and he lost two further places to Harry Tincknell and Carlos Sainz Jr. But he soon passed Sainz andTincknell and carved into Jaafars lead.
For lap after lap Alex hounded the Malaysian, and finally passed Jaafarwho is the points leaderinto the Brooklands left-hander with just over two laps remaining. For the second time this weekend he claimed fastest lap of the race, and moves level on points with Sainz for fourth in the championship. Lynn even has an outside mathematical chance of claiming the title in the final round at Donington Park.
I made a really good start, but I think we carried a little bit too much wing for the headwind that had got up, and I was slow out of the first corner, said Alex, who is a member of the FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy, the MSAs Team UK and the British Racing Drivers Clubs SuperStars programme. I lost three places on the first lap and I genuinely thought my race was over.
It was a hard race and I didnt have much straight-line speed, but I just tried to keep the tyres as good as possible. Jazeman made it hard, and with 10 laps to go I had a lot of understeer because my front-left tyre was going, but I was pleased with the move.
Its been a mega weekend. Our pace has been incredible and I could have won all three races, but even so that first win feels pretty special!
Lynns Fortec engineer Russell Dixon added: We knew Alex was fast here, and we were confident of getting the car right. Winning two races on the road shows how dominant he was. This is great for his confidencehe was quickest by a mile.
Lynn is now looking forward to the final weekend of the British F3 season, at Donington Park in Leicestershire on September 29/30.
