Weiron Tan (London) made it four straight race wins in the Protyre Formula Renault Championship during the first outing of the weekend at Rockingham in Northamptonshire, Saturday, 10th August, with an exemplary lights-to-flag performance.

After dominating the earlier pair of qualifying sessions to take pole position for all three races at the venues 1.94-mile International Super Sportscar Circuit, the Malaysian 18-year-old was unchallenged in round 12 on his way to a colossal eight second winning margin. The Fortec Motorsports driver also comfortably posted the fastest lap of the race with a time of 1m18.945 seconds (88.46mph).

First of all, Id like to thank the team for doing such a great job, said Tan, Everything we planned turned out well, we had a good start off the line and tried to just maintain our pace throughout the race which turned out really wellwe did a good job. We hope we can repeat this in races two and three tomorrow.

In terms of the championship standings, Tan pulled six points back on season-long series leader Chris Middlehurst (St. Helens) but second place for the MGR Motorsport racerhis 11th podium from the 12 races contested so farkeeps him 92 points clear at the top of the table.

When the categorys drop score is applied, Middlehursts advantage is still a remarkable 76 points and he can wrap-up the 2013 Protyre Formula Renault title tomorrow at Rockingham if he is able to conclude the penultimate race meeting of the season more than 68 points ahead of Tan.

The Fortec guys had good pace at Croft and here at Rockingham as well so we knew it was always going to be tough to beat them, commented Middlehurst, The aim is always to win, but we have to think about the points too for the championship. Its all still open, weve just got to keep scoring the points and see what happens tomorrow.

Qualifying for round 12 was unbelievably hotly contested with only 0.065 seconds splitting Tan and Middlehurst in the fight for pole. Fortecs Sam MacLeod (Cambridge), meanwhile, was a mere 0.001 seconds further shy in third and only 0.3 seconds covered the top 10.

At the start, the slightest bit of movement on the line from Tan threatened to compromise his launch but the Caterham F1 Team Driver Development racer held off Middlehurst through Turn One of the Rockingham Oval with MacLeod maintaining third. Tan concluded the first lap 0.9 seconds clear and from that point on he continually increased his lead, never putting a wheel wrong.

Fortec team-mate Hongwei Cao (Stoke-on-Trent) put together a sensational opening lap to climb from seventh on the grid into the top four. This subsequently became third for the Chinese driver when MacLeod retired with an oil pump problem on lap five.

As the top three circulated unchanged to the flag on lap 16, two separate battles developed behind with the rapid Matias Galettowho remarkably scythed his way through from 10th on the grid into the top five on the opening tourcoming under attack from Hillspeeds Jake Cook (Rotherham).

Running in fourth place following MacLeods retirement, MTECH Lites Argentinan driver held onto the place until lap six when Cook was able to slice past and pull almost five seconds clear before the finish. Galetto then had to soak up intense pressure from MGRs Jorge Cevallos (Northampton) during the closing stages but held off the Mexican by 0.5 seconds at the flag.

Reflecting on his third podium of 2013, Cao said: Ive been getting more and more familiar with the car this season. I didnt really have a good start but at Turn One I managed to move to the inside and took a good position. In Turn Two, I made a bit of a lunge and then got up into P4 which was great. Unfortunately for my team-mate Sam [MacLeod], he had an issue with his car, which gave me third.

Brazilian 17-year-old Pietro Fittipaldi, driving for Jamun Racing, headed home the next group in seventh place after managing to fend off impressive championship newcomer Hongli Leo Yee (London) by only 0.6 seconds. The Fortec Competition driver ended his maiden race in Protyre Formula Renault a fraction ahead of MGRs Tom Oliphant (Tarporley) in a very close contest.

Wei Fung Thong (Liverpool), who started the race on the second row after a great qualifying run but was elbowed down the order to the tail of the field after a skirmish on lap one, battled back into 11th placethe Fortec racer right on the gearbox of Hillspeeds Matt Rao (Oxford) across the line.

MTECH pairing Shahan Sarkissian and Ed Brand (Dagnall) placed 12th and 13th respectively, ahead of SWB Motorsports Atte Lehtonen. Elsewhere, Scorpios Henrique Baptista (Eastbourne) and MTECHs Joe Ghanem both sustained damage on lap one. Ghanem ultimately retired while Baptista rejoined the race after pitting for a new front wing, picking up the points for 15th place.

Round 13 of the Protyre Formula Renault Championship will take place at 11.05 Sunday, 11th August, with round 14 following at 15.35. Tan will begin both encounters from pole position with MacLeod alongside him for round 13 and Middlehurst on the front row for round 14.

Along with headline sponsor Protyre, Formula Renault is additionally supported by Michelin, The Lubricant Consultancy, Petronas Syntium and NGK Spark Plugs.

Provisional 2013 Protyre Formula Renault Championship Standings (after Rd12inc. drop score):

1st Chris Middlehurst, 339pts; 2nd Weiron Tan, 263pts; 3rd Jake Cook, 244pts; 4th Jorge Cevallos, 224pts; 5th Hongwei Cao, 195pts; 6th Henrique Baptista, 148pts