Chris Dittmann Racing returned to F4 British Championship competition as the series headed to Oulton Park for rounds 13, 14, and 15 of the season, with four trips to the podium a reward for the team’s hard work over the weekend.
For rookie racer Gustav Jonsson, Friday’s free practice sessions would be the youngster’s first experience of the Cheshire venue. Despite that, he was quick out the gate, and comfortably inside the top ten, though in qualifying he finished 15th.
Teammate Jack Sherwood found over six tenths from free practice, but in a very closely matched field, finished the session 16th quickest, while Daniel Guinchard enjoyed a strong start to the weekend, finishing fifth.
With second quickest lap times setting the grid for race one, Daniel would line up ninth, Gustav 14th, and Jack in 16th. Gustav and Jack were off to a good start after safely passing the slow-moving car of Will Macintyre, before the race was red flagged on lap three.
Restarting with 15 minutes on the clock, it was another solid launch for all three drivers. Daniel was up two places into seventh whilst Jack had made it past teammate Gustav into 12th. With Aiden Neate falling down the order, each racer gained one place respectively, holding their positions until the chequered flag, with Gustav taking his fourth Rookie Cup win of the season so far. Jack gained an impressive five positions during the contest, with Daniel in sixth to bring home some more points.
The Safety Car was deployed on the second lap of race two, with Jack in fifth, Gustav seventh, and Daniel in 17th on the restart. Moving up to fourth, Jack was biting at Josh Irfan’s heels as he looked to claim a podium spot, but he couldn’t make the move before the clock ran out. At half distance, Daniel was forced to pit for a new nose cone after sustaining damage, re-joining the race in 20th position, making up a further three places to cross the line in 17th. After a close battle with James Piszcyk, Gustav made it to the chequered flag in fifth and third of the rookies, marking his second podium appearance of the weekend.
With a few drivers out after irreparable damage in earlier races, Daniel lined up third for race three, holding the position at the start. As race leader Kanato Le slowed down with a puncture, Daniel followed James Higgins through into second place and, with no further change in position before a red flagged ending, Daniel scored his highest finish of the season so far and took home a second-place trophy on the championship’s landmark 250th race. With some back and forwards between teammates Gustav and Jack, the pair crossed the line 11th and 12th respectively, Gustav making yet another Rookie Cup podium appearance in second place.
The F4 British Championship side of the team have little time to rest, as the next three rounds are set to take place on the iconic Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit this weekend (June 23-25) for the first time, presenting an exciting new challenge to the young racers.
Daniel Guinchard #49
G1 – 9, R1 – 6
G2 – 18, R2 – 17
G3 – 3, R3 – 2
Championship: 11 (85 points)
“Qualifying was a bit unfortunate as we couldn’t quite replicate the pace from practice, but we still managed to classify in the top five which was really positive. My second quickest lap put me in ninth and we made up a few positions to finish in sixth. It’s pretty difficult to overtake around Oulton Park, so it shows that our pace was good. Race two was unlucky as I took some contact which damaged my front wing so I had to pit, but the pace was really strong again. We didn’t have our best tyres on, so I’m happy we were still able to set decent lap times. It was a positive start to the day.
“I’m really happy with race three, but I know we had the pace to win. If it wasn’t for the red flag ending the race early, we might have been able to challenge [James] Higgins for the lead. It’s hard to say for certain what could have been, but the fact we can match his pace even in the dirty air around here, is a really positive sign for the next few rounds. Second is still a great result, it’s my best of the season so far, and a good haul of points. It’s nice to be back up where we belong as a team.
“I’m excited to see what Silverstone has in store for us. It’s the first time the championship has raced on the Grand Prix circuit, so it will be interesting. We had some issues when we tested there, but we’ve been working hard to iron them all our so it should be good.”
Jack Sherwood #78
G1 – 16, R1 – 11
G2 – 7, R2 – 4
G3 – 15, R3 – 12
Championship: 15 (32 points)
“Relative to the pace we had in Friday’s practice, qualifying was good as we found a big chunk of time. We’re still not really where we want to be position-wise, we want to be back where we were at the start of the year, qualifying inside the top 10 and then fighting for podiums. I think it’s achievable to get back up there, we just have to keep building towards it.
“We did everything right in race one. It’s always tricky to overtake at Oulton Park with the dirty air, so I made the most of the positions I could gain off the start, got my head down and just kept pushing on. We had good pace towards the middle point of the race we were really fast, but I had a bit of damage to the front wing from some contact earlier on which limited the tyre life, but there are plenty of positives to take away.
“We had a good start to race two and we made up a few positions in the first few laps. I was all over [Josh] Irfan for third, and it was quite frustrating as he was doing the minimum to keep us behind and he was quite a lot slower than us, but there was nothing more we could do. If we had cleared him, we probably had the pace to win.
“Race three wasn’t bad as we made up a few positions which is always positive. We had a strong opening lap, but then I just made a few mistakes which dropped me back behind Gustav. From there on, I was trying to get into a rhythm and catch back up to Gustav, but I just couldn’t quite make it. I think it has been a positive weekend overall and if we can sort out qualifying, then we’ll be up there because our race pace is so strong.
“I love Silverstone, it’s a great track and the racing should be close there because of the slipstream. We had a test day there a couple of weeks ago and we were strong, so I’m excited to see what we can do there next time out.”
Gustav Jonsson #23
G1 – 14, R1 – 12 (Rookie – 1)
G2 – 8, R2 – 5 (R – 3)
G3 – 14, R3 – 11 (R – 2)
Championship: 14 (49 points)
Rookie Cup: 1 (223 points)
“We struggled somewhat in qualifying as I hadn’t been to Oulton Park before Friday’s practice sessions, but we had decent pace despite that. We were quick enough to be within the top eight, but qualifying just didn’t go our way. Going into the race, our goal was to get as many points in the Rookie Cup as possible. It’s difficult to find many overtaking opportunities so you have to wait for people to make mistakes then capitalise, but it’s a really strong field so that doesn’t happen as often as you’d like. We started from the back of the field, so we knew it was going to be hard, but to come away with the rookie win was a great achievement. I’ve been consistent throughout the season up at the top end of the rookies, so it feels good.
“In race two, we were much quicker than the guys in front, but the dirty air does a lot of damage, so we couldn’t catch up or attempt any moves. Even so, we managed to go from eighth to fifth and third in the rookies so I’m happy with that. We had some good pace in race three. I was pushing quite a lot to try and make the other drivers make mistakes, but it didn’t quite happen. Like most others, we struggled to get the overtakes done, but it was still positive. We scored some more decent points in the Rookie Cup which was the goal.
“I’m really looking forward to racing on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit next time. We were really quick in testing there, so I think we could definitely challenge for pole position, and hopefully a race win.”
