Ella Lloyd’s final appearance in the Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by FIA did not deliver the send-off she was hoping for, despite moving closer to securing second overall in the Challenge Cup category.
Heading to Silverstone on the back of a productive F1 Academy test in Spain, where she topped the times at the revamped Navarra circuit, Lloyd was keen to add to her points tally in the overall championship standings, having been left empty-handed on her previous appearance, at Knockhill. Aware that she would be missing the series’ final round at Brands Hatch due to a clash of dates with the F1 Academy round in Singapore, the 20-year-old knew that it was also her last opportunity to try and close the gap at the top of the Challenge Cup, the competition instigated for drivers unable to contest more than seven of the ten scheduled rounds.
Despite an uncertain weather forecast for the weekend, Saturday morning’s qualifying session passed off with a dry track under cloudy skies, and Lloyd posted the eighth-fastest time to secure a spot on row four of the grid for the third and final race the following day. The Rodin driver was only a couple of tenths off the pole position time while, such is the close competition in the series, a single tenth improvement would have gained two positions in the starting order.
With her second race grid position set by the usual reversal of the top 12 drivers in qualifying, Lloyd was assured of two top ten starts, but would open the weekend from 12th after her second-fastest lap in the single qualifying session was not as quick as those around her. The first leg of the triple-header would also prove frustrating as, while the order at the front of the field chopped and changed early on, the Welsh driver’s #20 machine gained a couple of places on the opening lap before being forced to hold position as she pursued title contender Martin Molnár. Her hopes of claiming the final point then took a further blow when she was assessed a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits, dropping her back to her original starting position.
“Qualifying was pretty decent actually,” Lloyd insisted. “Right until the final corner, we were up on the pole position time. I obviously lost a lot of time there but, overall, I was happy with the performance.”
With the weather holding fair the following day, Lloyd rolled off from fifth on the grid for the mid-morning second race, but soon found herself at the heart of a seething battle for the minor points. Dropping to sixth on lap four, she bounced back from losing another place by re-passing Tommy Harfield next time around, holding P6 through a mid-race safety car before having to avoid the mayhem around her cost her another spot, dropping the orange-and-black Rodin machine to an eventual seventh by the chequered flag.
“Race one was okay, as there’s not a lot you can do around Silverstone National racing-wise,” Lloyd explained. “Race two, however, was more hectic, with a lot going on, but we struggled for pace too, which meant I couldn’t recover from dropping positions.”
Renowned for her lightning starts this season, Lloyd was uncharacteristically slow out of the blocks for the final race of the weekend, dropping from what had become seventh on the grid overnight to 12th by the end of the opening lap. Worse was to come as, still struggling to match her rivals for pace, further places were lost either side of the first of two safety car interventions and again before the second, leaving Lloyd 15th on the run to the flag. Being promoted one spot post-race was of little consolation, but the McLaren protegé still claimed a third podium finish in the Challenge Cup to increase the margin to her nearest rival with one round available to close the gap. Although the title is out of reach, finishing as runner-up would at least provide some succour on a tough season for Lloyd.
“Overall, not as bad a weekend as it might seem, although the results in the second and third races might have been better in different circumstance,” she acknowledged. “It’s been a decent season, even though I couldn’t contest every round. Obviously, the podium at Zandvoort was a highlight, but there have been other good results and I’ve enjoyed being in the thick of it from start to finish.”
Lloyd will miss the 10th and final round of the British F4 season at Brands Hatch as her F1 Academy commitments take precedent on the weekend of 3-5 October, when she will be in action in the penultimate round of the F1 Academy series in support of the Singapore Grand Prix.
