– Eventful Silverstone meeting offers little success
– P4 finish followed up by double retirements
– Swede retains fourth in overall standings
Joel Granfors took away a fourth-place finish as his best result from a challenging weekend of racing in the F4 British Championship at Silverstone.
Arriving at the famous F1 venue with wind in his sails following five podiums from the previous nine races, Granfors’ momentum was halted by an unfriendly mix of circumstances in round eight of the campaign.
The issues began already in testing and practice on Thursday and Friday, where Granfors suffered from heavy oversteer aboard his Fortec car. The cause was later identified going into qualifying, but effectively rendered data from the previous two days virtually invalid – although Granfors was able to still qualify a respectable sixth.
The Swede then claimed P4 in the first race of the weekend, but was forced to retire from the final two encounters due to suspension failure (Race 2) and a coming-together with championship rival Matthew Rees (Race 3).
“This has been a weekend to forget,” says Joel Granfors. “It’s been really difficult and we’ve had too many issues combining in one weekend. I tried my best with what I had, but it wasn’t easy. We need to sit down and analyse this, and I’m sure there are lessons to be made.”
Despite the Silverstone setback, Granfors retains fourth place in the overall championship standings, where he remains in contention but has now dropped to 47 points behind leader Matias Zagazeta.
“Luckily for us, the other guys (in title contention) didn’t have the best of weekends either,” Joel Granfors concludes. “We’re still in it, although it’s looking slightly more difficult, so in some ways it’s been a little bit of damage limitation.”
Two rounds remain of the 2021 F4 British Championship. The penultimate meeting takes place at Donington Park in a fortnight (8-10 October).
RESULTS
F4 British Championship
Rd. 8 | Silverstone
STANDINGS
F4 British Championship
After 8/10 rounds
1: Matias Zagazeta (PER), 251 p.
2: Matthew Rees (GBR), 234 p.
3: McKenzy Cresswell (GBR), 215 p.
4: Joel Granfors (SWE), 204 p.
5: James Hedley (GBR), 189 p.