O’sullivan impresses with two wins from pole
Zak O’sullivan may have been leading the British Formula 4 standings when the field assembled at Brands Hatch, but his win from the opening round at Donington Park had been in the reversed-grid race. The rest was down to consistency, leaving the 15-year-old Carlin charge with a point to prove on the Grand Prix Circuit.
This he did, O’sullivan mesmerising team boss Trevor Carlin with the smoothness of his onboard footage as he stroked to two pole positions in qualifying, converting both of them into race wins.
As well as O’sullivan’s driving, another key to his success was the frustrating qualifying form of Luke Browning. There’s little doubt the Fortec Motorsport terrier is the best racer in British F4, but qualifying left him with work to do from third on the grid in race one and fifth in race three.
Browning went inside Alex Connor at Paddock Hill Bend just after the start of the opener to take second. He then began to chew into the advantage of O’sullivan, who was losing grip at the rear, late in the race.
Browning began the finale by immediately dispatching Roberto Faria and Nico Pino, and a wobble for Connor at Clearways allowed the Fortec youngster into second on the drag to Paddock. He put pressure on O’sullivan throughout, but the single-seater rookie drove a beautiful, unflustered race.
In between, Christian Mansell made it a Carlin clean sweep by leading Faria and Abbi Pulling throughout the reversed-grid race, as transmission failure sidelined O’sullivan.