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Palmer wins on opening weekend at Oulton Park

Will Palmer enjoyed a great start to his 2015 BRDC F4 campaign as he took a win, podium and the championship lead at Oulton Park last weekend (4/6 April).

The 18-year-old had been in fine form throughout testing on Friday, setting the overall pace in the damp with a lap of 1:48.620s, over three-tenths of a second faster than Douglas Motorsport's Akhil Rabindra in second.

The 2014 Winter Series Champion carried this form into Saturday as he claimed P1 on the grid for the opening race of the season following a titanic battle with his HHC Motorsport teammate Harri Newey. The momentum swung back-and-forth between the two drivers in the 20-minute session with each taking it in turns to claim provisional pole position. With just over one minute left in the session Newey, son of legendary F1 designer Adrian, took top spot with a lap of 1:36.150s but Palmer lit up the timing screens and snatched it back by just 0.116s.

With a clear view ahead as the lights went out, Palmer made a strong getaway and leapt into an early lead in the first race. Newey was overtaken by South African Sebastian Lanzetti for second and it took until Knickerbrook on lap three for Newey to retake the Hillspeed driver. The 16-year-old attempted to close the gap to Will but the Southwater ace merely eked out his advantage to and strolled home to victory by 4.815s with Lanzetti taking third.

With the reverse grid format for race two, Will started in eighth place and had managed to make his way up to fourth by the end of the opening lap. Pole-sitter Sisa Ngebulana had spun on the warm-up lap which left Manxman Chris Mealin to lead the field away with Ecurie Ecosse Young Driver Ciaran Haggerty in close pursuit.

Palmer had caught up to the back of Tom Jackson's red-and-yellow machine but was struggling to find a way past, which allowed Lanan Racing's Jack Bartholomew to close up and a three-way fight soon developed. It took until lap eight before Will dived inside Jackson and Bartholomew followed him through. Up front, Mealin extended his advantage over Haggerty and came home to take the win with Palmer holding off Bartholomew to stand on the podium once again at Oulton Park.

Having set the fifth-fastest lap across the first two races, Palmer lined up on the third row behind Chris Mealin, Ciaran Haggerty, Harri Newey and Jordan Albert. Newey made a good start and was pressuring leader Albert immediately but Palmer had a less successful getaway and was relegated to eighth. Newey attempted an ambitious pass for the lead but spun off and rejoined in 16th, promoting Palmer to seventh, and he soon improved on this by passing Bartholomew for sixth.

As the race headed towards its conclusion, Ciaran Haggerty made a number of mistakes which allowed Will to take fifth behind Albert, Mealin, Rodrigo Fonseca and Jackson.

After the first weekend of the 2015 Duo BRDC Formula 4 season, Palmer leads the championship on 74 points, five points ahead of Chris Mealin in second and Tom Jackson on 58 points in third.
 
Will said: "It's been a really good weekend for me and I'm really please that we've been able to start the season so strongly. The team did a great job all weekend as we saw with a one-two in qualifying and the first race.

"There are a few things we should be able to improve for the next race so hopefully we can carry this momentum through to Rockingham and be even stronger there."

The next three races in the series take place at Rockingham Motor Speedway on May 2/3.

Duo BRDC Formula 4 Championship, Oulton Park, round 1 result:

1. Will Palmer, HHC Motorsport, 12 Laps
2. Harri Newey, HHC Motorsport, +4.815s
3. Sebastian Lanzetti, Hillspeed, +6.248s
4. Tom Jackson, Chris Dittmann Racing, +14.409s
5. Jack Bartholomew, Lanan Racing, +15.046s
6. Ciaran Haggerty, Ecurie Ecosse/GBR, +15.285s
7. Chris Mealin, Lanan Racing, +16.046s
8. Sisa Ngebulana, HHC Motorsport, +20.531s
9. Rodrigo Fonseca, Lanan Racing, +20.966s
10. Fernando Urrutia, Douglas Motorsport, +22.461s

Click here to view full standings.

Duo BRDC Formula 4 Championship, Oulton Park, round 2 result:

1. Chris Mealin, Lanan Racing, 12 Laps
2. Ciaran Haggerty, Ecurie Ecosse/GBR, +0.592
3. Will Palmer, HHC Motorsport, +4.071s
4. Jack Bartholomew, Lanan Racing, +5.831s
5. Tom Jackson, Chris Dittmann Racing, +7.794s
6. Harri Newey, HHC Motorsport, +8.458s
7. Sebastian Lanzetti, Hillspeed, +13.717s
8. Rodrigo Fonseca, Lanan Racing, +14.014s
9. Jack Lang, Lang Sport, +21.941s
10. Akhil Rabindra, Douglas Motorsport, +28.948s

Click here to view full race results.

Duo BRDC Formula 4 Championship, Oulton Park, round 3 result:

1. Jordan Albert, Sean Walkinshaw Racing, 12 Laps
2. Chris Mealin, Lanan Racing, +7.882s
3. Rodrigo Fonseca, Lanan Racing, +8.421s
4. Tom Jackson, Chris Dittmann Racing, +8.885s
5. Will Palmer, HHC Motorsport, +9.856s
6. Jack Bartholomew, Lanan Racing, +12.292s
7. Ciaran Haggerty, Ecurie Ecosse/GBR, +15.477s
8. Zubair Hoque, Sean Walkinshaw Racing, +19.769s
9. Harri Newey, HHC Motorsport, +21.032s
10. Fernando Urrutia, Douglas Motorsport, +33.388s

Click here to view full race results.

Duo BRDC Formula 4 Championship standings after race 3 of 24*

1. Will Palmer, HHC Motorsport, 74 points
2. Chris Mealin, Lanan Racing, 69 points
3. Tom Jackson, Chris Dittmann Racing, 58 points
4. Harri Newey, HHC Motorsport, 56 points
5. Jack Bartholomew, Lanan Racing, 54 points
6. Ciaran Haggerty, Ecurie Ecosse/GBR, 54 points
7. Rodrigo Fonseca, Lanan Racing, 49 points
8. Jordan Albert, Sean Walkinshaw Racing, 43 points
9. Sebastian Lanzetti, Hillspeed, 38 points
10. Fernando Urrutia, Douglas Motorsport, 31 points

Click here to view full standings.

*Provisional standings

Latest Results

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain
Race 2

1.	G Alesi	16 laps
2.	A Hubert	+2.077s
3.	J Hughes	+2.376s
4.	J Correa	+3.295s
5.	D Boccolacci	+3.593s
6.	N Kari	+3.959s
7.	C Ilott	+4.904s
8.	S Laaksonen	+5.544s
9.	L Pulcini	+6.103s
13.	W Palmer	+12.603s

Latest Eurocup Standings

1.	S Fenestraz	367.5 points
2.	W Palmer	298 points
3.	R Shwartzman	285 points
4.	M Defourny	255 points
5.	G Aubry	232 points
6.	M Fewtrell	164 points
7.	D Ticktum	134 points
8.	Y Ye	106.5 points
9.	R Verschoor	89 points
10.	A Peroni	72 points