British Racing Drivers’ Club ‘Rising Star’ Charlie Robertson climbed back into the top five of the BRDC Formula 4 Championship at Snetterton in Norfolk over the weekend, 7th/8th September, thanks to a hat-trick of consistently competitive points finishes in rounds 19, 20 and 21.Despite facing an uphill battle after suffering a rear suspension failure during pre-event testing, the Whyteleafe 16-year-old delivered expectedly strong performances across the three races to bag a brace of top four results and a fine fifth place in the final encounter.With the suspension damage and repairs during rain-affected practice on Friday, 6th September, preventing Charlie from enjoying any dry track time ahead of qualifying, the HHC Motorsport driver headed into the grid-determining session for the opening race on the back foot but he still managed to post the fourth best time.Lining-up on the second row of the grid for Saturday afternoon’s encounter, the Investigo-supported youngster made a good, clean start to maintain position before setting about pressuring third placed Struan Moore. Harrying his rival during the early going, Charlie closed to within just 0.2 seconds but overtaking proved to be at a premium.As the lead quartet ran in close contention, it enabled the chasing pack to edge nearer and Charlie had to therefore keep one eye on his mirrors. Able to pull away as the race wore on, though, the Scottish teenager ended the contest three seconds clear and only 0.4 seconds shy of the podium.Starting round 20 from fifth on the ‘reverse grid’, as a result of taking fourth in race one, Charlie was nudged back to sixth position on the first lap before being shuffled down the order to eighth on lap two as the action intensified.Taking no time at all to mount a recovery, he was back into seventh place by lap four and then sixth as the race entered its second half. Closing up to the lead quintet, the MSA Academy driver pressed on and passed Brazilian team-mate Gustavo Lima for fifth on the last lap. Post-race, however, winner Seb Morris was excluded from the results for a technical infringement – elevating Charlie into fourth.Starting round 21 on Sunday afternoon from seventh position, the Surrey youngster made a good getaway to climb into the top six and piled on the pressure to Jake Dalton before moving into fifth when championship leader Jake Hughes dropped back. With overtaking again proving nigh-on impossible, Charlie opted not to take any risks and remained in fifth to the finish. “It’s been a consistent weekend really”, he commented, “I just needed to keep my head down, stay out of trouble and get some good points which we managed to do. I still wanted to try and fight for wins this weekend but without any dry testing, it was always going to be hard to achieve that.“Overall, we’ve salvaged some good results and we’re back into the top five in the championship and still in with a very good chance of ending the year in the top three. Hopefully we can fight for the top step of the podium at Donington and get some more wins before the end of the season – that’s my main aim for the final round.”Charlie’s maiden season of single-seater racing will reach its conclusion three weeks from now, on 28th/29th September, at Donington Park’s Grand Prix Circuit. Highlights of this weekend’s outing at Snetterton, meanwhile, will be screened on ITV4 and ITV4 HD next Sunday, 15th September, at 18.00.Provisional 2013 BRDC Formula 4 Championship Standings (after Rd21):5th Charlie Robertson, 320pts
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