• British F4 leader Kiern Jewiss takes fifth win of 2018
• Superb one-two in Rd14 for Double R with Jewiss and Tonteri
• Alvarez races to season-best P7 in final race of Croft weekend
Championship leading British Formula 4 racer Kiern Jewiss increased his advantage at the top of the driver standings for Double R Racing to an extremely impressive 57 points at Croft in North Yorkshire over the weekend, 23rd/24th June, as the 2018 season reached the midway point.
Finishing round 13 on Saturday afternoon in second position, in the first of Sunday’s two F4 British Championship certified by FIA Powered by Ford races Jewiss charged through to claim a magnificent win from fifth on the grid. In round 15, he added another second place finish for the Woking team.
Team-mate Paavo Tonteri took a highlight second place overall in round 14, a terrific one-two for Double R with Jewiss and also the Finnish youngster’s fifth Rookie Cup victory of the year, with the addition of top four results in the other two contests.
Mexico’s Sebastian Alvarez missed out on the points-paying top 10 in rounds 13 and 14, but the first year F4 driver raced impressively to a season-best seventh position overall in round 15 – his fifth outright score of the season.
“We know we have a great set-up for Croft and Kiern and Paavo made the most of that in race two, taking another Double R one-two is fantastic”, said team principal Anthony Hieatt, “We wanted to make sure we kept the lead of the championship to end the first half of the season, but to have increased the points gap with Kiern is really good and sets us up well into the summer break.
“Paavo had another strong weekend with an outright podium and another Rookie win, and he’s closed on the top four in the main championship. Sebastian’s weekend certainly ended positively, we can’t ask for much more than a best result of the season – he raced well and did a great job.”
Jewiss and Tonteri double-up for Double R
Qualifying on Saturday was impossibly close, the tinniest of fractions determining the top three places on the grid for round 13. Jewiss had to settle for second fastest, missing pole position by a mere 0.038 seconds, and Tonteri was just 0.019 seconds further adrift in third – second in the Rookie class. Alvarez was just a tenth of a second outside the top 10 with the 11th best lap, fourth Rookie.
Jewiss challenged pole position qualifier Dennis Hauger very hard indeed throughout the 15-lap duration of Saturday afternoon’s encounter, the Double R racer never more than a few tenths of a second adrift as the pair pulled well clear of the chasing pack. Swarming all over the back of his rival, Jewiss ultimately had to settle for the runner-up spot less than half a second shy.
Tonteri was edged back to fourth early on and then spent the remainder of the race just outside the top three, claiming second in the Rookie Cup. Alvarez also lost ground on lap one, slipping to 12th place, and was then shuffled down to 13th on the second tour. Bottled up behind the car of Lucca Allen, Alvarez pressured hard and took the flag only 0.1 seconds behind – fourth in the Rookie class.
For the ‘partially reversed’ race two grid, Tonteri lined-up in third with Jewiss directly behind in fifth and Alvarez started in 13th spot. When the lights went out, Tonteri held third into the first corner as Jewiss squeezed into fourth just behind his team-mate on the inside and then, on the run to Tower, they moved into second and third respectively when Ayrton Simmons slowed.
Further back, Alvarez had to take to the grass out of the chicane to avoid being caught-up in a multi-car tangle and after a wild ride across the infield he was able to recover to the track in 12th position before then heading to the pits at the end of lap two. After rejoining a lap down following a check-over of his car from the team, the Mexican went on to end the race in 12th position.
Up at the front, Jewiss piled on the pressure to team-mate Tonteri as the duo closed on race leader Matthew Hoggard and on lap four at Tower points leader Jewiss produced an incredible late pass on the brakes to move ahead of Tonteri into second.
By the start of lap six Jewiss was right with Hoggard and at Tower he again produced a sensational move, remarkably this time around the outside, to take the lead. Even with the intervention of the Safety Car on lap nine, Jewiss was untroubled and he went on to take his fifth victory of the season by 3.5 seconds.
Tonteri, under huge pressure after the Safety Car period from Dennis Hauger and Jack Doohan, didn’t put a wheel wrong as he defended his position and as his rivals waged their own battle late on the Finn pulled clear to wrap-up a tremendous one-two for Double R, as well as the Rookie win.
Race three, round 15, started with Tonteri on the front row of the grid – having shaded Jewiss to the second fastest ‘second best’ time in qualifying – and again there was nothing between them, just 0.012 seconds. Alvarez started in 11th position as he did in race one.
Another great launch enabled Jewiss to challenge team-mate Tonteri into Clervaux and, with a bold pass, he moved into second brilliantly. Ending lap one 0.9 seconds shy of pole qualifier Hauger, Jewiss remained in touch and after a mid-race Safety Car period he did get as close as half a second behind Hauger. Ultimately, though, the Double R racer had to settle for second and another podium.
Tonteri ran in third place for almost the entire duration, only losing out on an outright rostrum finish at the final corner when Doohan made a late move for third on the inside – which also pushed the Finn back to third in the Rookie class battle.
Behind his two team-mates, Alvarez put together one of his best performances of the year on his way to a season-best seventh. From the head of row six, the Mexican was edged back to 13th place on lap one but he soon began his fightback and by lap four he had moved into the overall top 10.
Following a spin for Josh Skelton at the end of lap four, which triggered the mid-race Safety Car, Alvarez took ninth and before racing resumed a pit-stop for Patrik Pasma elevated the Double R machine into eighth. Swarming all over Manuel Sulaiman when racing resumed, Alvarez applied a lot of pressure and grabbed seventh brilliantly on lap 10 – also finishing fourth in the Rookie battle.
Following a lengthy five-week summer break, Snetterton 300 Circuit in Norfolk will host the sixth event of the British F4 season on 28th/29th July. One week earlier, Double R Racing’s BRDC British Formula 3 squad will be back in action at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.
2018 British F4 Championship Standings (after Rd15):
1st Kiern Jewiss, 267pts; 5th Paavo Tonteri, 149pts; 14th Sebastian Alvarez, 15pts
2018 British F4 Championship ‘Rookie Cup’ Standings (after Rd15):
3rd Paavo Tonteri, 254pts; 5th Sebastian Alvarez, 125ptsds
