17th June 2019
Louis Foster battled through varying weather conditions to claim two podiums at Croft to bring home another strong haul of championship points in the FIA British Formula 4 title fight.
Qualifying
With Louis taking his final GCSE exam on Friday, the Double R racer missed much of the practice sessions, meaning that the pressure would be on in qualifying, with Louis needing to learn the track quicker in his F4 machinery than his competitors.
Despite limited running, Louis set a flying lap of 1:19.933s to cement third position on the grid for race one – a time that was only 0.386 seconds off of the pole sitter’s lap result.
With the Copart-sponsored driver setting a 1:19.967 as his second fastest time around the 2.1-mile North Yorkshire circuit, a front row start was earnt for the final race of the weekend.
Race 1
With the sun coming out and the track drying, race one got off to a good start for Louis. He maintained his position and was able to apply pressure to team-mate Sebastian Alvarez off the line, although his Double R teammate defended well.
However, by the end of the first lap, Louis dropped a position as he was overtaken by Bart Horsten. Nonetheless, Louis kept level headed and began the fight back for a podium position.
Throughout the remainder of the race, Louis maintained his position and lapped with consistent times to cross the finishing line in fourth place. However, Alvarez was handed a penalty for a false start, and this promoted Louis to third and a subsequent podium was the result.
Race 2
Race two at Croft was cancelled amid worsening weather conditions. The race did start, but it was red flagged after a single lap due to more rain making the track too dangerous to race on. The championship has confirmed that this race will be re-run at a future round and this will be confirmed at a later date. As a result of this, no points were awarded in the championship for this round.
Race 3
With the final instalment of the weekend live on ITV4, the Vansdirect-sponsored driver lined up on the grid in second position for a race filled with drama.
Away from the line, Louis was able to make a good start to put him comfortably second as the field headed into Clervaux.
The safety car soon made an appearance after two incidents in one lap and the race was neutralised to allow the marshals to remove the cars.
At the race restart on lap five, Louis held his nerve to have a clean getaway and kept his nose out of trouble as he remained comfortably in second position, bringing home another trophy and a solid number of points.
Leaving North Yorkshire with a healthy points total, Louis sits on 172 points – just five behind championship leader Zane Maloney.
“It’s been a good weekend overall,” the Lord Wandsworth College pupil said.“I got to grips with the track quickly which is promising, especially after coming off the back of a busy week with my GCSE exams. I was pleased with my qualifying performance and was happy to be on the front row of the grid for race three.
“Race one went to plan and we were able to get a podium. It was a shame about race two being cancelled, but I’m looking forward to resuming that battle later on in the year! Race three was probably the strongest one for me of the weekend, finishing in second and showing some strong pace. I’m excited to see what we can achieve at Oulton as I know we have the pace to be back winning races!”
Louis won’t have long to wait for the next rounds of British Formula 4 – the championship heads to Oulton Park next on June 30th for the next three races of the 2019 season.