as sixth marks finest F3 finish to-date

Jordan King proved that he is making swift progress in his maiden campaign of Formula 3 competition in round two of the fiercely-contested FIA Formula 3 European Championship at Silverstoneas a superb sixth place saw him consolidate his standing as the series leading rookie.

Having turned heads during the course of an impressive F3 debut around legendary Italian Grand Prix venue Monza three weeks earliertallying a brace of top ten finishes, and being on-course for a hat-trick until an out-of-control rival intervenedKing travelled to the celebrated Home of British Motor Racing in optimistic mood, and promptly lapped an excellent sixth-quickest out of the 28 high-calibre contenders in Friday practice.

I treat every race weekend the same, to be honest, confessed the talented young Warwickshire ace. Its always nice to compete on home turf, of course, but ultimately all of the races carry an equal points value. What I will say is that in an F3 car, the full Silverstone GP layout is extremely fast! Its a long lap and a fair chunk of it is flat-out, which makes it a lot of fun and a big challenge at the same timedefinitely a true drivers circuit.

Conditions in practice were very changeable, which made it hard to accurately assess where anybody really was pace-wise. We seemed to have a decent turn-of-speed, though, and looked to be there-or-thereabouts, and it was still useful information given that the weather over the rest of the meeting continued in a similar vein.

Indeed, the opening qualifying session that afternoon marked the only time all weekend that the track was fully dryand the first time that King had ever driven Silverstone in his Carlin-prepared, Volkswagen-powered Dallara single-seater without the heavens opening.

Explaining that theres a massive difference between the circuit when its dry and when its dampthe lap times are about 20 seconds apart and all your previous references, braking-points and gear changes go out-of-the-window, that difficulty allied to a red flag that brought an early halt to proceedings conspired to restrict the 19-year-old to a frustrated tenth on the grid for race one and 11th for race two.

A heavy rain shower ahead of the second 20-minute qualifying session, however, left the track half-wet and half-dryand the F3 protagonists facing a tricky choice. Knowing that he would initially be grappling around for grip but having always excelled in damp conditions on dry-weather tyres and justifiably confident in his car control, King took the ballsier option of bolting on a set of slicksand found his bravery handsomely rewarded.

For me, it wasnt a gamble, he assured. I was sure it would dry out quickly enough to make the move pay off. It was quite a juggling act, though, and all about generating sufficient heat in my tyres on the dry patches early on. Whilst it was pretty slippery to begin with, the traction progressively improved and we got faster-and-faster. It all came down to the last few minutes in the end, and I was able to nail a lap that put me in fourth place.

Ashen skies and light rain greeted competitors on Saturday morning for race one, and following a bright start and a supremely bold overtaking manoeuvre on McLaren Driver Development Programme member and former Formula Renault UK Champion Tom Blomqvist for eighth place, the highly-rated Stoneleigh-based speed demon found his tyres beginning to fade in the closing stages. After grittily defending against three visibly faster cars, he was eventually forced to yield as his pace dramatically dropped away.

I got a really good launch off the line but then got trapped on the inside going into Turn One, which cost me all the ground I had made up, he related. Still, I settled into ninth and was feeling quite racy, and on lap two I fought my way past Blomqvist into eighth. He slid a little bit wide on some water through Copse, which gave me a good run; he went defensive, so I kept my foot planted and jinked to the outside through Maggots, leaving me the inside line for the following corner, Becketts.

I felt quite comfortable in eighth, but over the last five laps, my tyres went off quite badly. That hurt me notably in the slower corners, and I came under a lot of pressure from behind and unfortunately didnt have the pace to hold them off, which dropped me out of the top ten. It was particularly disappointing as I had been in front of some experienced drivers that Im competing directly against in the championship, and eighth position would have represented a solid points haul.

Whilst most of his adversaries had opted for a full complement of four fresh tyres for the race, King had plumped for two new and two used, hoping that his tactic would reap dividends in the second outing later in the day. That strategy looked to be an intelligent oneuntil Lady Luck decided otherwise...

Safely navigating a chaotic start that saw cars pointing in every conceivable direction both on the circuit and on the grasslittering the track with debris and shards of carbon fibrethe McLaren Autosport Award finalist, recently-appointed British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC) SuperStar and MSA Academy member carefully picked his way through the carnage to rise as high as sixth.

He subsequently slipped to eighth as two recovering title contenders scythed their way back up through the order, but was under no further threat from behind and was homing in on a six-car scrap over the runner-up spoils later on when his battery unexpectedly gave up the ghost with just three laps left to run.

In the weekends final encounter the following day, King executed a textbook getaway to advance one position from the wetter side of the starting grid on slick tyres, only to find himself boxed in at the first corner and obliged to lift off the throttle, demoting him to eighth.

Undeterred, the Hugo Boss brand ambassador once more proceeded to duel wheel-to-wheel against some of the most seasoned campaigners in the field as he battled his way back into sixth spot to secure his finest finish to-date, relentlessly harrying F3 veteran Will Buller right to the chequered flag. That means he will head to round three at Hockenheim early next month still ensconced inside the top ten in the championship standingsand highest-placed rookie for good measure.

It was a shame about the problems we had in the first two races, because they cost me at least eight points, King reflected in conclusion, but things ended well in race three. We now have to continue working hard before Hockenheim. Im still learning in F3, but we definitely took a step forward at Silverstone and need to focus on consistently moving up the grid. Every time I climb in the car, Im gaining experience and making progressso the goal for Germany has to be to keep that positive momentum going.