Luke extends points lead at high-speed Thruxton
Rising star Luke Browning continued his impressive run of form in the F4 British Championship certified by FIA, powered by Ford EcoBoost at Thruxton to extend his points lead as the season reached the half way stage.
The Cheshire racer headed for the fastest circuit on the calendar with a 38 point lead over closest rival Zak O’Sullivan having secured a fine seven podium finishes in a row – a record he was keen to try and extend during the fifth meeting of the condensed 2020 campaign.
Having been a close second on the times in Friday practice, Luke qualified alongside O’Sullivan on the third row of the grid for race one of the weekend having set the sixth quickest time.
Getting ahead of O’Sullivan at the start, Luke then fought his way ahead of Alex Connor, and secured third from Abbi Pulling after a brief safety car period.
Although unable to close on the two cars ahead to fight for victory, another podium finish allowed Luke to extend his championship advantage.
The run of top three finishes would come to an end in the second race of the weekend after a clash with O’Sullivan and Connor at turn one left him nursing damage to his front wing.
Despite that damage, and having dropped down the order, Luke fought his way back through to sixth place at the finish which allowed him to edge further away from O’Sullivan, who would cross the line in tenth.
A post-race penalty for his part in the incident meant Luke be demoted to the tenth on the grid final race of the weekend but he wasted little time in making up places to lie in sixth by the end of the opening lap.
Fighting ahead of Christian Mansell and Connor on lap three, Luke would cross the line in fourth spot before a one second time penalty dropped him behind Connor on the road.
With O’Sullivan down in tenth spot, Luke was again able to outscore his rival and will now take an extended 57 point lead to Silverstone for the sixth meeting of the year.
For whatever reason we just didn’t have the pace, we seemed to be really quick in sector one and then just lose it all round the back where all the flat out corners are.
“It was just tough, it was just one of those weekends, we knew it’d be tough,” he said. “But I’m really looking forward to Silverstone, the home of the BRDC and getting back out there really.
“I love Silverstone, it’s an awesome track. I hope we can get some good results there, we had some not too bad results last year, but I think the weather forecast is looking a bit rainy as well which can be a bit helpful!”