Chris Dittmann Racing battled through windy and sometimes wet weather at Donington Park at the weekend (August 24/25), with Bart Harrison showing some good overtaking prowess, finishing just outside the Rookie podium positions.

The F4 British Championship returned to the Leicestershire venue, this time on the longer Grand Prix circuit, with two practice sessions on Thursday. Qualifying was a challenge on Saturday morning, with drizzly rain falling, causing tricky wet conditions on track. Running was disrupted by three separate red flags, making it hard for Bart to build up speed and confidence, as he finished fifth fastest of the Rookies.

With the rain clearing but the track remaining damp, the opening race featured two formation laps and a reduced duration of 18 minutes. Bart gained an impressive seven places on the opening lap, before the Safety Car was called, and racing only lasted another lap when it released the field, before it was summoned again and red flags shown. On the restart, he unfortunately locked a wheel, losing a few positions, and crossed the line 11th overall and fourth of the Rookies.

Saturday’s additional race – one which was postponed at Donington Park in April and rescheduled for this weekend – showed Bart could make forward progress once again, after an early Safety Car. He climbed from 14th overall to take the flag 11th, frustratingly just behind a Rookie podium.

Sunday morning started off with another early Safety Car on the first lap, with Bart running 12th. The track went green with 11 minutes of the 20 remaining as the youngster was battling hard, ultimately finishing fourth Rookie and 14th overall.

In the fourth and final race, shown live on ITV4, Bart had some good opening laps as he moved up three overall places, before losing out at the Melbourne Hairpin. Adding to that setback, he was then penalised for exceeding track limits, dropping him from a probable top 10 finish.

All focus on the British F4 side of the team is now on the visit to Silverstone later in September, while the GB3 Championship heads to Donington Park in two weeks’ time, over the weekend of September 7/8.

Bart Harrison – #77

G1 – 16, R1 – 11 (Rookie – 4)
G2 – 14, R2 – 11 (R – 4)
G3 – 16, R3 – 14 (R – 4)
G4 – 16, R4 – 15 (R – 5)

Championship: 18 (22 Points)
Rookie Cup: 4 (191 Points)

“It ended up being a bit of a difficult weekend and overall, I felt like we struggled a bit with the pace. We had a good start to things in the first race, where I moved from 16th to eighth, but I also made a couple of mistakes during the races too. I am putting my focus forward to the next race at Silverstone, which is one I am also looking forward to.”