Ella Lloyd refused to be thwarted in her quest for points in the Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by FIA at Oulton Park, despite the weather again having a say in how the weekend turned out.
Returning to domestic competition buoyed by three second-place finishes while on F1 Academy duty in Montreal last weekend, and fresh from a British F4 test at Silverstone in preparation the series’ non-championship guest appearance at the British Grand Prix, Lloyd was encouraged by an improvement in pace from practice to qualifying, even if she was stranded on the ninth row of the grid when the timed session was red-flagged with two minutes left on the clock.
With the grid for race one set by the drivers’ second-fastest laps of the session, Lloyd was better placed, lining up 13th in the 20-strong field. That, however, left in the middle of the pack when chaos broke out at the start of the 20-minute race, as a slow getaway further up the order caused those behind to scatter in avoidance. Although Lloyd managed to emerge unscathed, others were not so fortunate and, with damaged cars stranded on the start-finish straight, the stewards had no option but to bring out the red flags.
Taking advantage of the spaces left on the reformed grid, the 19-year-old vaulted straight into eighth place at the restart, but then found herself in something of a no-man’s land, with gaps to the cars in front and behind meaning no further change of position throughout the 15-lap event.
Sunday’s two British F4 races sandwiched the afternoon’s first British Touring Car Championship bout, ensuring a large crowd for both, but Lloyd faced a tough task if she was to come through from her lowly grid spot. With only the top 12 qualifiers having their positions reversed for the start of race two, the Rodin driver was consigned to 18th on a track where overtaking often proves difficult. Again, however, she made a good start, gaining three places on the opening lap and then a couple more by half-distance to be running 13th and eyeing the possibility of a good points haul if her progress continued.
That hope was dashed on lap 12, when another driver damaged Lloyd’s front wing, impairing the performance of the orange-and-black #20 machine and leaving her to fend off the chasing group. Successfully taking the chequered flag without conceding a position, and having made up five spots over where she had started, the Pontypridd native was rewarded with points for ground gained, ensuring some return for her efforts.
Having threatened throughout, the weather finally took a turn for the worse by the time race three rolled around late in the day. With the track already damp, conditions were tricky from the start but, when the rain returned within a few laps, they became almost undrivable, bringing out the red flags as cars began to spin off the road. Lloyd, to her credit, managed to keep the #20 facing the right way, and picked up places in the process. However, despite running 11th on the road when the race was red-flagged for good, the rules dropped her back a couple of spots in the final results, albeit still allowing for a first win in the Challenge Cup category.
“We struggled a bit for pace in qualifying, although it was still positive to have taken a step forward from practice,” Lloyd reflected. “Despite starting lower down the grid than we would have liked, I was able to make up positions in all three races, making good progress and again enjoying some decent pace. Scoring points in the first two races is obviously good news for the championship — and going from 19th to 11th in the third race, especially given the conditions, wasn’t too bad either.”
Although the next scheduled championship round is not due until the series visits Zandvoort in the Netherlands in late July, British F4 has been added to the British Grand Prix programme, ensuring Lloyd again gets to race in front of huge audience over the weekend of 4-6th July.
