Carrie Schreiner returned to the British F4 championship at Thruxton last weekend with her best results in the UK so far this season.
The 17 year old German is only contesting selected rounds of the British championship that do not clash with her commitments in the ADAC Formula 4 championship in Germany.
Thruxton is a huge challenge to a driver but fortunately Schreiner had tested at the Hampshire circuit before the season started.
Schreiner found herself lower than she hoped after qualifying though as she lined up 20th on the grid for the first race at the demanding Hampshire venue.
Schreiner gained two places on the first lap to move into eighteenth position and as a result of the incident ahead at the chicane, which eliminated her team mate in the sister Double R car, Schreiner was able to pick her way through into fifteenth.
She then Moved up into fourteenth place on lap six, benefiting from a rival making a mistake at the chicane at the end of lap eight. She then climbed further up the order into twelfth place following a dramatic clash ahead which left one car rolling into the tyre wall at the chicane. Then with just over three laps left to run, Schreiner was herself sent into a spin on the run into the chicane but she fortunately didn’t make contact with the tyres and recovered to finish in 13th place.
For round eight on Sunday afternoon, Schreiner again started in 13th place. She made an excellent start before putting together a superb opening lap, with the German starlet rising into the top ten.
It was then that a couple of separate incidents meant the deploying of the safety car and also elevated Schreiner to seventh place.
With the action restarting on lap eleven, there was soon yet another collision at the chicane, moving Schreiner up to fifth place. This was her highest UK position so far but could she go higher. The answer was yes as rival Petru Florescuran into trouble putting Schreiner into fourth and bringing out the safety car once more.
Racing restarted on lap eleven and Schreiner gave it everything to try and get the final podium sport from Billy Monger. As they started the final lap she was 0.3 seconds behind but there was just no way through and they crossed the line nearly together, just 0.2 seconds off the lead!
“Race two definitely showed what Carrie is capable of, absolutely fantastic racing from the pair of them to finish fourth and fifth”, said Double R team principal Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt “Thruxton isn’t a track for the faint hearted and Carrie was so impressive in the second race, to come back into the championship after missing the previous round and do so well at such a challenging and high-speed track is fantastic.”
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In the final race of the weekend, Schreiner started from the back row of the grid from where she put together another stunning first lap to scythe her way through into fourteenth position – a gain of five places. Unfortunately she was pushed back to seventeenth place on lap four, and then eighteenth several laps later after some fierce racing. The German eventually battled back into Sixteenth position before the finish.
It had been a good weekend for the German star with race two being the obvious highlight.
There is now a four week break in the F4 British Championship calendar with rounds 10, 11 and 12 of the season set to take place at Cheshire’s Oulton Park over the weekend 4th/5th June once again supporting the BTCC.By Marc Waller
