Romanian driver Alexandra Marinescu enjoyed another weekend packed with progress and this time she was joined by Carrie Schreiner who is doing the rounds which don’t clash with her German campaign,
as the F4 British Championship headed to Rockingham for the eighth meeting of the season.
Rockingham was Alexandra’s second outing with the Richardson Racing team, which is now operating from a base just minutes away from the circuit in Corby. Schreiner runs with the very experienced Double R racing.
Having made good progress throughout her debut meeting at Snetterton last month, the team was hopeful that Alexandra would continue to close the gap to the drivers ahead during the Rockingham meeting, although her job was made more difficult by poor weather conditions that hit the Northamptonshire circuit on the first day of the two-day meeting.
Schreiner was also hoping to make progress and the two drivers joined the other F4 competitiors in the Friday test session where both drivers felt they made progress.
However come qualifying on the Saturday of the race weekend it was raining. It was the first time Alexandra had sampled the F4 in wet conditions, meant she found herself off the pace at the back of the grid. Schreiner had slightly more luck taking sixteenth.
The conditions were even worse in the opening race later on Saturday. Marinescu had to settle for 16th place – the main aim having been to keep the car on track and gain as much knowledge as possible for the future. Schreiner again had a much better time, moving to thirteenth on lap one before fighting further up the field to take eleventh. This then became tenth, when a rival ahead was penalised.
Race two on Sunday was in much more favourable conditions. Alexandra was lapping three tenths of a second quicker than she had done during Friday practice and she finished within 30 seconds of the race winner in fourteenth place – less than half the margin that there had been after the wet weekend opener. This time it was Schreiner’s turn to have a difficult race. Initially it had gone well from the start but then a collision with rivals sent her to the back of the field. A safety car period let her catch up again but she eventually needed to retire with the damage sustained in the accident.
In race three, Alexandra was the quickest that she had been all weekend although she ended up nineteenth. She spoke afterwards;
“The weekend went pretty well overall,” she reflected. “Considering that qualifying and race one was the first time I had driven the car in the wet, I think it went better than expected and I was happy to keep the car on the track in difficult conditions.
“The second race was quite good because I finished 14th, and while I was a bit lucky to get that high up, I improved my lap time and got closer to the pace. Even though we had a small problem with the car in race three, I improved my best lap time again and think I’ve made more good progress across the weekend.
“It’s clear to see that I need more time in the car and more experience, but I am slowly catching up to the pace of the other drivers on the grid and I’m looking to bringing that gap down a bit further when we get to Silverstone.”
Team boss Gwyn Richardson declared himself pleased with the progress Alexandra had made in his second race weekend, particularly taking into account the conditions on track.
“As at Snetterton on her debut, Alexandra has done a good job this weekend and we are pleased with the progress she has made,” he said. “It would have been easy for her to make a mistake and put the car into the gravel on Saturday when the circuit was wet but she drove well on what was her first taste of the car in those kind of conditions. When the circuit was then dry for the second and third races, she made good progress, and the fact that she continued to get quicker and posted her best lap of the weekend in race three is an indication that she is moving in the right direction. She’s been able to learn a lot this weekend and hopefully the progress she has made at Rockingham will continue during the next event at Silverstone in a few weeks time.”
Carrie Schreiner’s third race went better than her second, from seventeenth on the grid she took a place on the opening lap to run sixteenth. This then became 16th as she picked off another rival later in the race before taking fifteenth after passing Frank Bird on the final lap.
Both girls had positive results on what was a difficult weekend with various weather conditions to overcome. Schreiner in particularly had a very positive race, taking points for the second time this season. By Marc Waller
