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Palmer fights back at demanding Rockingham weekend

Will Palmer was forced to battle hard for points at the Rockingham Motor Speedway last weekend (2/3 May), as a retirement in race one left the 18-year-old fighting from the back in the final two Duo BRDC Formula 4 races on Sunday. The Southwater ace performed strongly however to secure fifth and eighth place finishes, which did not do justice to his speed at the Northamptonshire venue.

Having posted the fourth-fastest time in Friday testing and been quickest in a pre-Rockingham test earlier in the month, Will headed into the meeting in confident form as championship leader. His speed was underlined in qualifying as he claimed a front-row starting spot alongside his HHC Motorsport team-mate Harri Newey. Having traded times with the 16-year-old for most of the session, Newey grabbed the upper hand with Palmer 0.398s back in second, with the Sean Walkinshaw Racing machine of Jordan Albert in third.

There was drama before race one had even begun as Newey slowed heading to the grid and was unable to take up his starting spot at the head of the field. That left Palmer to lead the pack away as the lights went out to signal the start of the race, with Jordan Albert close behind in second. As the pair headed into the Deene Hairpin, both drivers out-braked themselves and skated off the surface; Palmer clipping the tyre barrier and then being collected by the Douglas Motorsport car of Fernando Urrutia. With significant damage to his car, Palmer was out of the race and would line up 17^th on the grid for Sunday's race two.

As the fifth round of the 2015 Duo BRDC F4 season loomed, the 2.050-mile International Super Sportscar Long Circuit was slick with water following a deluge of overnight and early morning rain. All 20 cars on the grid were shod on Pirelli wet tyres with the tricky conditions catching out Jack Lang on the warm-up lap. A storming opening lap from Will saw him rise to eighth position but pushing too hard exiting Chapman corner, he spun and was relegated to 19^th, just ahead of his fellow HHC Motorsport driver Sisa Ngebulana.

The Safety Car was deployed on the same lap to clear up the stricken Lang machine, who had spun again on the exit of Deene Hairpin, and when it pulled in after just one lap at the head of the field, Will set about recovering positions. After carving his way through the back of the pack, he had made it up to 11^th by the end of lap six. He got ahead of Zubiar Hoque and Sebastian Lanzetti before setting about passing the Lanan Racing trio of Rodrigo Fonseca, Chris Mealin and Jack Bartholomew, which he duly did on lap nine. He quickly dispatched Indian driver Akhil Rabindra for fifth but, with a large gap ahead to the front-four, Palmer sat securely in that position until the end of the race to claim an important 16 points.

With the sun shining on the Northamptonshire oval for the rest of Sunday's action, it was a dry track that the Duo BRDC F4 field returned to for the final race of the weekend. With grid order determined by fastest laps from the first two races, and Will having failed to set a time in Saturday's dry race one, he was left to start from 17^th once again.

With Ciaran Haggerty's retirement on the first lap, Will was up to 15^th by the second lap and passed the Hillspeed car of Faisal Al Zubair and the slowing Hernan Fallas to move into 13^th on the next circuit. Through further retirements, he was up to 10^th when the Safety Car was deployed to clear up Ameya Vaidyanathan's car, which had pirouetted across the track and made contact with the barrier on the School Straight. With three laps left, the Safety Car pulled into the pits and Palmer passed Sebastian Lanzetti and Jordan Albert for eighth, the pair having tangled on the final lap.

His 13 points from race three give him 103 points from the opening six races of the 24-race calendar, which puts Will fourth in the overall standings, just one point behind Lanan Racing's Jack Bartholomew. The other two Lanan Racing drivers of Chris Mealin and Rodrigo Fonseca currently lead the way on 140 points and 126 points respectively.

Will said: "It has been a difficult weekend for me. After a good qualifying performance, a mistake at the start of race one really cost me and I then had to start at the back for race two and three. Fifth and eighth-place finishes on Sunday was a reasonable salvage but now we need to focus on hitting back at Silverstone."

2015 Duo BRDC Formula 4 - Rockingham Results

Qualifying - 2nd
Race One - DNF
Race Two - 5th
Race Three - 8th

Rounds seven, eight and nine of the 2015 Duo BRDC Formula 4 Championship take place on the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit on 30/31 May. 

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