Sharp double podium at Thruxton

Louis Sharp has come away from last weekend’s three races at Thruxton with two podiums under his belt, adding to his successful FIA British Formula 4 Championship campaign.

The 15-year-old New Zealand driver’s weekend got off to a good start at the UK’s fastest circuit as he set the third fastest time in Friday’s practice session, just 0.040 seconds off second place.

Come qualifying on Saturday morning and Sharp had placed the Carlin Motorsport car on the second row of the grid in third, ready for race one.

When the green light shone, Sharp soon found himself surrounded by cars heading into the opening corners, nearly losing third position in the process. Holding onto the place, the Kiwi’s pace was looking strong until the deployment of the safety car backed up the field.

Upon the restart, Sharp managed to pull away from the pack and secured his first third place podium of the weekend.

The second race proved to be a bit more of a challenge with Sharp starting eighth on the grid. Against the odds, the opening laps saw him make headway as he climbed into fourth postion.

However, a mistake coming out of the chicane saw Sharp fall to seventh by the finish.

In the third and final race, Sharp was back on the second row of the grid and held third position throughout the race. On the final lap, the Kiwi pushed hard to make up any places he could setting the fastest race lap of the weekend in the process.

By the end, he had to settle for third as front runners Alex Dunne and Ugo Ugochukwu got away with the first and second respectively.

The two podiums see Sharp maintain fourth position in the championship standings, sitting just 35 points behind Ugochukwu with two rounds left to go before the season ends.

We next join Sharp at Silverstone on September 23.

2022 ROKiT F4 British Championship certified by FIA (points after 24 of 30 rounds):

_{Main image: Louis Sharp Facebook}