Victory for Caroline at a Wet Oulton Park

Jamie Caroline proved wet weather is no issue in his pursuit of race wins, racking up his eighth victory of the season this afternoon in the first F4 British Championship race of the weekend at Oulton Park.  Caroline led the wet race from lights to flag, looking unflustered throughout to extend his championship lead yet further.  Team mate Patrik Pasma made a lightning start and came home fourth, with Logan Sargeant unable to recover from a difficult start crossing the line fifth.  Lucas Alecco Roy enjoyed a strong race, taking ninth at the flag.

Torrential rain before the first race of the weekend created difficult conditions for the F4 drivers this afternoon at Oulton Park.  Two green flag laps allowed the drivers the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the wet circuit, but it was a standing start as normal when the lights went out.  Caroline made a great getaway, holding the lead while team mate Sargeant battled wheel spin and dropped back to fifth from his second place grid slot.  Pasma enjoyed opposite fortunes, the young Finn climbing from seventh to fourth.

Roy enjoyed some close racing in the opening laps, the German was ninth but was passed by Jamie Sharp before taking the position back a few corners later.  At the front, team mate Caroline was already pulling away.  The championship leader had quickly built up a gap of over three seconds, only for second placed man Alex Quinn to close the gap by five tenths.  Caroline responded though, pulling away again to take victory by 3.8 seconds.

Speaking about his victory, Caroline said, “It was good to get the first bit of wet running of the season in.  I’ve been looking forward to some wet weather racing and it was good fun.  The car was mega fast as always.  I had a good start and just tried to control the gap from there.  Then I cooled down a bit and could see Alex catching me so I pushed to pull out the gap again.  It feels good to take a win in these conditions.”  

Caroline will start sixth in this evening’s reverse grid race at 17.45, Sargeant will line up second, Pasma third and Roy ninth.