Hours later the TRS Arden duo were starring on the podium again, having finished second and third respectively. Meanwhile Olli Caldwell made an excellent debut as the youngest driver to race in Formula 4 by scoring points.
Starting on the front row in Round 14, Alex made an excellent getaway, as team-mate Ayrton Simmons fell into the clutches of fast starting cars behind from pole. Oscar followed Alex’s example as the lights went out, charging from fifth to third, after which the safety car was deployed due to the stranded car of Daniel Cao in the gravel at turn one.
Alex wasted no time at the restart, immediately putting daylight between himself and Jamie Caroline. Oscar perfected the restart and found himself in the slipstream of Caroline down the main straight, but was unable to pull off a move into Clervaux.
The Aussie persisted though, sneaking past as the lap progressed, with Ayrton achieving the same feat at Complex despite front wing damage. However, Ayrton’s efforts would later prove to be in vain with his race coming to an abrupt end after contact with Caroline.
Alex pulled away from the squabbling field behind and brought Oscar with him. At one stage Oscar looked to have more pace, dancing all over Alex’s gearbox. They provided a thrilling show with Alex doing brilliantly to keep Oscar behind to take his first win with TRS Arden in British F4.
TRS Arden had further reason to celebrate. Not only did Olli make history by becoming the youngest driver to race in Formula 4 having turned 15-years old just hours earlier, he also finished in the points. Tenth place a fantastic achievement after starting last due to being unable to take part in qualifying yesterday because of his age. Olli was calm and composed in his maiden outing and gradually picked his way through the field.
In Round 15 Alex leapfrogged Oscar and Caroline by scything down the inside of them through turn one. Caroline found himself defending a two-pronged attack from the TRS Arden pairing and as he tried to fend off Oscar, Quinn found enough space to pass them both.
Oscar maintained the pressure through Hawthorn and Caroline ran off the track through the Chicane, losing ground and giving Oscar the opportunity to go by.
More formation flying followed for the boys in red and on their way to second and third behind race winner Linus Lundqvist.
Ayrton made gained several places at the start and despite not being able to quite keep up with the cars ahead he pulled off a remarkable overtake on Oliver York for seventh. The perfectly judged, daring late lunge at Tower wowing spectators.
Olli just missed out on a Ford F4 Challenge Cup podium despite a superb effort. It featured some excellent wheel-to-wheel racing from the birthday boy, coming out on top heading into Clervaux on lap two having been three abreast with Lucas Alecco Roy and Daniel Cao.
Oscar’s hat-trick of podiums and Alex’s win and second place means both drivers have made up ground in the championship heading into the summer break. Oscar now lies 67.5 points away from top spot in second and Alex is just 31.5 points further back.
Meanwhile Ayrton will want to replicate that winning feeling he had at the Brands Hatch season opener and Olli will challenge for the Challenge Cup title when TRS Arden’s British F4 campaign resumes at Snetterton on 29/30 July.
Alex Quinn: “To leave Croft with a podium and a win gives me a lot of hope for the second half of the season. Although we’ve scored many podiums, we’ve just been caught out by bad luck at times. I think things are looking up in the championship now
though which is really positive. It means a lot to finally get this first win with TRS Arden. There’s been so much hard work from both myself and the team to get this victory. I hope it will be the first of many.
The race I won was pretty perfect. I got such a good start to pass Ayrton off the line and take the lead. Oscar put me under enormous pressure towards the end and we broke away from the rest of the field. In the final race I got a good start off the line which enabled me to put pressure on the guys in front and while Oscar and Jamie were squabbling I took my chance up the inside. Oscar was very quick in the first part of the race which didn’t make things easy, but then I managed to just pull away a bit towards the end which underlines my consistency in the car over a race distance.”
Oscar Piastri: “Three podiums out of three is always a good result in one weekend. It would have been nice to get first, but I didn’t want to risk it all trying to pass my team-mate. My start was really good. I managed to get past Logan and Ayrton and then Jamie went off the track which allowed me to get up to second and close up to Alex. As they squabbled behind we were able to break clear.”
“In race three I got a good start and moved alongside Jamie. Unfortunately Alex got on the inside of both of us. This race was very similar to race two when I caught Alex up and then dropped back off again. The team has done an amazing job. We’ve been fast all weekend regardless of the conditions. We’ve certainly made up some ground on Caroline in the championship.”
Ayrton Simmons: “Starting from pole in race two meant we had a good chance. Alex got a really good start. Caroline came up the inside and that’s how I ended up with damage to the front wing, but after the safety car I overtook Caroline around the outside which was
not easy to do. The contact later on finished my race. In race three I made a good start to make up a few places, but then I didn’t really have the pace that I showed in Friday testing so I dropped back a bit. I pulled off a brilliant move on York. Luckily I made it stick. My left leg hurts a bit from hitting the brake pedal too hard though! The second half of the season should be better for
us. Its feels like it’s going to be the same as last year, where the fast half was fairly steady and then things really began to take off.”
Olli Caldwell: “My first race was hectic with cars going off in front of me. I just kept calm and kept pushing, taking my opportunities as they came along. The second race didn’t quite go as well as I hoped. At one point I thought I was going to get on the Challenge Cup podium. Overall it’s been a really good weekend. We wanted points and we achieved that. At the next weekend when I’ll be able to qualify we’ll be aiming a bit higher. We have done a lot of preparation and all the pieces fell into place today. We executed our plan well. I’ve shown that even with limited testing I can be on the pace and I cannot wait for Snetterton.”