Beauly racer Ollie Stewart claims second rookie victory of the season at home race of F4 British Championship in Knockhill
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Young Scottish racer Ollie Stewart claimed a second Rookie Cup victory of the season in the F4 British Championship last weekend as he had a hat trick of podiums his home circuit of Knockhill in Fife.
Having found himself off the pace in test and practice sessions during the week, though, the Beauly-based youngster had ground to make up in qualifying, and despite tricky conditions the teenager went eighth fastest.
Stewart got away well for the opening race but was left disadvantaged as cars ahead managed to pull away quicker. Despite that, the 15-year-old maintained his position and, at half distance in the 20-minute contest, Rookie Cup rival Ugo Ugochukwu went off into the gravel, allowing him to sail past into seventh overall for his second rookie win.
As pole-sitter Adam Fitzgerald started from the pit lane after spinning on the reverse grid formation lap for the second race, Stewart only had one car ahead of him to contend with and made a lightning start to claim the lead, though fell back to second when Georgi Dimitrov fought his way back in front.
Coming under pressure from cars behind, the young Scot made a slight error at the chicane and went off into the gravel on the exit, dropping down to eighth. Now fighting for second among the rookies, he went wheel-to-wheel with Ugochukwu, eventually conceding the position to the Carlin driver, crossing the line ninth overall and once again on the rookie podium.
Doing well to avoid the stalled car of teammate Alex Dunne at the start of race three, Stewart made up three places to run seventh on the opening lap. Strong pace saw Stewart pull away from those behind, but dirty air made it difficult to overtake, leaving Stewart seventh overall and second of the rookies.
“Qualifying went quite well," Stewart reflected.
"There were certain things I needed to improve on from practice, so the team and I have been working really hard. In practice we were about six-tenths off, so to bring it down to two-tenths in qualifying was good.
"It was a really wet session, but I just had to deal with it and hope for the best. I've not really done much running in the wet before, so I knew it was going to be a bit of a learning curve.
“The start of race one was quite tricky because we're on a hill at Knockhill. I got a good launch initially, but the drivers in front of me were on a flatter surface, so they were able to pull away from me. I attempted a few moves and there was a bit of chaos, but I just kept my head down, kept a consistent race pace, and managed to get seventh and first of the rookies.
“In race two I made a huge mistake, or rather a little mistake that had a huge consequence. That cost me an overall podium and maybe even a win, as I was catching up to the leader at that point.
"I was extremely disappointed in myself, as I feel like I let the team and everyone supporting me down, but I had to try and keep putting in the effort and redeem myself for the next race. I learned from my mistake and made sure it didn't happen again.
“The race three start was amazing. I had to avoid my teammate as he stalled off the line, but my initial launch was really good and I managed to pass a car off the line and nearly another into Duffus Dip. Our pace was great, but we just couldn't get close enough to Eduardo [Coseteng] in front because of dirty air, even though we were faster.
"We're really happy with the pace and over the last 30 days there has been a crazy improvement. We're still not where I want to be, but we're getting there at a good rate.”
Stewart sits third in the Rookie Cup standings with 239 points to his name, and will be back on track at Snetterton over the weekend of August 13/14 for rounds 19, 20, and 21 of the F4 British Championship season.
