The rise of Louis Sharp has continued with a win in British Formula 4 at Silverstone this weekend. In addition to the win in Race 1, Sharp also claimed a podium in Race 2 before his weekend finished early with a DNF in Race 3.
Sharp now sits fourth in the championship despite missing the opening three races due to being too young. Since his 15th birthday, Sharp has managed a massive 10 podiums and sits just 35 points off third spot in the standings.
Race 1
Starting in fourth for the opening race, Sharp was the benefactor of an incident involving the two front row starters, Ollie Gray and Alex Dunne. A tight side-by-side battle saw the two make contact at the apex of Luffield seeing Dunne spin and Gray damage his front wing.
Sharp took the lead here but was quickly overtaken by Gray who was managing his damage well.
Two safety car restarts saw Gray continue in the lead and Sharp holding second from a charging Daniel Guinchard behind.
It was Gray who crossed the line first, Sharp behind in second whilst Guinchard finished third.
Post-race, however, the incident between Gray and Dunne was investigated with Gray receiving a penalty relegating him to fourth behind Dunne who had worked his way forward from the rear of the field to cross the line fourth.
With that penalty applied it was Sharp who claimed race honours ahead of Guinchard, Dunne rounding out the podium.
It is Sharp’s second win of the season and an impressive ninth podium of the season.
Race 2
In Race 2 it was Georgi Dimitrov who claimed a narrow victory over Ugo Ugochukwu with Sharp finishing third.
Starting on the front row, difficulties for pole-sitter Oliver Stewart saw Dimitrov take the lead into Turn 1.
Eduardo Coseteng and Guinchard battled early for second until coming together at Brooklands, Ugochukwu and Sharp moving onto the podium places after starting fifth and sixth respectively.
Another incident at Brooklands between Edward Pearson and Michael Shin brought out a safety car, bunching the field up.
Dimitrov was too strong off the restart, holding off a spirited challenge from Ugochukwu to take victory by .5 of a second.
In third, it was Sharp with his tenth podium of the season completing a successful two races for Carlin.
Dunne and Gray found themselves in hot water again post-race, coming together once again at Becketts after an enthralling battle for sixth. The debate began before the chequered flag and continued after with race officials taking a stern approach and awarding a five second penalty to Gray and a five place drop to Dunne.
Race 3
Race 3 was one to forget for Sharp who stalled on the start to be collected from behind by Edward Pearson. A nasty incident with both drivers thankfully uninjured. The race was immediately neutralised.
It was a change of fortunes for Gray who kept his championship hopes alive with victory, Joseph Loake finishing half a second back with Dunne rounding out the podium.
British Formula 4 now takes a two week break before returning to Brands Hatch for the final round of the 2022 season.
