James Pull has secured his best result of the 2016 F4 British Championship certified by FIA season following the second race of the weekend at Oulton Park. The Carlin man had lined up third on the grid following race one yesterday and kept his position well as the race began however he was to benefit from the early race leader crashing out, and came home to clinch his best result of the season. After his strong race yesterday Petru Florescu had lined up seventh on the grid – the Romanian kept well within the fight and as a last lap melee came about drove well to take fourth at the flag and keeping the championship lead. Team mate Max Fewtrell took fifth at the flag while yesterday’s race winner Devlin DeFrancesco finished in seventh position.

As ever, the second race of the weekend was a reversed grid race the top eight falling under the rule. As a result, this left yesterday’s victor DeFrancesco to line up eighth, Florescu seventh, Fewtrell fourth and Pull third.

Following the standard formation lap in fantastic British sunshine the lights quickly extinguished and the drivers launched off the line. Pull, Fewtrell and DeFrancesco all kept their positions over the first lap however Florescu was one of the few in the race to gain a position. Over the next couple of laps overtaking rarely featured despite the top ten being split by just the smallest of margins.

However drama would soon feature when race leader Zane Goddard crashed out of the lead of the race – ending up heartbroken in the gravel trap. This unfortunate turn of events for him worked well in the favour of the Carlin drivers and elevated those behind nicely up the order. As a result, Pull moved in to second, Fewtrell third, Florescu fifth and DeFrancesco seventh.

From here on in, the positions remained the same. Pull begin to pile even more pressure on the new race leader, Rafa Martins, who didn’t falter despite running nose to tail for the final half of the race. This bunched the field up even further and meant that with two minutes left of racing, the gap was just 2.8 seconds covering the top eight.

In what had been a relatively processional race, the last lap became the final chance for everyone to make a move. Pull lined up alongside Martins but couldn’t make the move stick despite being incredibly close; this in turn, brought him in to the clutches of Fewtrell behind allowing him the chance for a move. This didn’t quite work out, and Fewtrell fell down the grid as Alex Quinn and Florescu got the better of him.

With the last lap dash complete, Pull came through to take his best result of the season in second position. Florescu meanwhile took fourth and extended the lead of the championship while Fewtrell came home just behind in fifth and DeFrancesco seventh.

Pull said of his race, “It was a great race for me today although it is really difficult to overtake around here even though I knew I was faster than the leader. I literally gave it my all but it wouldn’t stick so it’s a shame we couldn’t get the win however second is very good because it’s nice points and it makes the championship really close. However fair play to Martins as he defended really well and prevented me from passing.  It’s going to be tough starting from sixth in the next race but I’m going to give it a go!”

As a result, it is a 1-2-3 for Carlin drivers in the championship standings with Florescu, Fewtrell and Pull respectively while DeFrancesco is currently seventh with a further race scheduled this afternoon.