Pirtek Racing’s rising star Jamie Caroline was left to rue a moment of misfortune that would ultimately cost him dear during the latest rounds of the F4 British Championship Certified by FIA – powered by Ford at Silverstone.
The teenager went into the weekend looking to build on a brace of fourth place finishes at Rockingham three weeks earlier and qualified seventh on the grid for the opening race of the weekend during a challenging qualifying session on a damp circuit on Saturday morning.
Making up places in the opening stages of race one, Jamie worked his way up to fourth spot by the end of lap two and then produced a defensive masterclass to keep rival Devlin DeFranscesco and the chasing pack at bay.
On the final lap however, Jamie suddenly found himself closing in on the car of Luis Leeds after the 16-year-old suffered a puncture and made his move for a place on the podium.
Going round the outside, Jamie found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when Leeds suddenly understeered into his Fortec Motorsport-run car – forcing Jamie off track and dropping him back to twelfth place.
Eleventh on the grid for race two as a result – having made up one spot thanks to a grid penalty for another driver – Jamie would end the second race of the weekend in tenth place and looked set to be at that result in race three before a five second penalty for exceeding track limits demoted him back to 14th.
Despite the tough nature of the weekend, Jamie retains his top ten championship position heading into the season finale at Brands Hatch next month.
“It’s hard to know what to say about the weekend,” he said. “We’ve had some bad luck this season but Silverstone topped the lot because of what happened in the opening race.
“I raced hard to keep my place throughout the race and when the chance was there to get on the podium, we were well placed to pick up a decent result that would have put me in a good position for race two. It was just unfortunate that Luis’ puncture meant he couldn’t turn in when I went to the outside. It was one of those things that happens and not anyone’s fault, but it ruined the rest of the weekend for me.
“Silverstone is probably one of the hardest circuits to overtake in these cars as there isn’t many places where you can pass, so from where we were on the grid in race two, we at least managed to get some points and then in race three, the penalty stopped me from finishing inside the top ten.
“I think that was harsh as there were plenty of drivers who ran wide and didn’t get penalised for it, but I’m just going to forget what happened this weekend and hope that my luck improves at Brands Hatch and I can finish the year with some decent results.”
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