Triple top ten for Luke at Zandvoort
BRDC Rising Star Luke Browning continued his impressive start to life in the ADAC Formula 4 Championship with a hat-trick of top ten finishes from the second meeting of the campaign at Zandvoort.
The US Racing driver headed for the Dutch circuit on the back of a race-winning debut in the series at the Red Bull Ring, with hopes high of another strong weekend to maintain his title challenge in the highly-competitive championship.
Qualifying 1 saw the reigning British F4 champion secure the fourth quickest time with a best lap less than half a second away from pole, and he then secured the eighth best time in Qualifying 2 – going six tenths of a second quicker than he had done in the earlier session.
A solid start to the opening 30 minute long race saw Luke retain his position going into turn one as he slotted in behind team-mate Tim Tramnitz before coming under huge pressure from Russian driver Kirill Small.
Fighting hard to keep Small at bay, Luke was able to edge away from his rival after a brief safety car period to secure fourth place and a solid haul of points to add to his tally.
A strong getaway in race two saw Luke quickly making up places from eighth on the grid, moving up into sixth on the opening lap after an impressive opening lap that included going three-wide with his rivals exiting the banked curve at turn three.
Luke would slip back to seventh when Tramnitz lunged up the inside at turn one mid-way through the race before the race went behind the safety car, with Sebastian Montoya getting ahead on the restart when Luke locked up going into turn one.
A second caution period would then see leader Oliver Bearman back up the field until the last possible moment, with Sami Meguetounif able to sneak ahead of Luke on the restart only seconds before the safety car came out for a third time – remaining on track to the finish to leave Luke with a ninth place finish.
Having missed out on the reverse grid for race three, Luke would line up in ninth place for the start of race three and held his place at the start, moving up to eighth when Meguetounif was handed a time penalty for an infringement at the start.
When Nikita Bedrin ran wide, Luke moved up into seventh place and he then secured sixth when he battled ahead of Joshua Dufek after a safety car period.
The sixth place finish means Luke sits fifth in the standings – just five points away from second – ahead of the third meeting of the season at the Nürburgring in early August.