Fortec Motorsports headed to Silverstone this weekend (June 14-16), for rounds 13,14, and 15 of the British F4 Championship.
After steady practice sessions on Friday, where good signs of pace were shown, it was time for the three drivers to jump into the car for qualifying on Saturday morning. The cars finished with Kai Daryanani in 17th, Nina Gademan in 19th, and Alex Berg in 22nd, as all three drivers on slicks with a wet track drying out.
The sun came out for the first race however the track was still a bit damp in places. Nina struggled at the start after a long hold before the lights went out, but she made a great recovery to finish 15th. Kai made up places on the opening lap but after a car spun into the gravel a Safety Car was called.
Once the green flags were back out, Kai was impressively battling his way through the top 10. Whilst trying to make a move around the outside of an opponent he ran wide and, making sure not to be penalised, dropped back and ultimately finished 9th. Alex started 21st and showed how much pace the car had, making it up to 14th before the Safety Car, eventually taking the flag 16th.
Heading into race two there was a hectic first lap with four cars spinning out into the gravel, and Alex ran over a loose front wing, causing damage to the car and causing him to retire. Kai had a solid contest, keeping it clean when under pressure from cars, crossing the line in 11th, whilst Nina did well to not get caught up in the crashes around her, being classified 17th after a post-race penalty.
The Dutch racer had a great start to race three, managing to overtake a few cars in the first half of the opening lap. However, after a Safety Car on lap two, there was a collision in front of her, causing her to lose places, meaning she finished the race in 18th. Unfortunately, Kai’s time on track was cut short after contact sent him into the gravel, and Alex made a couple of positions at the start but on the final lap he collided with another car while trying to pass and struggled to get the car to restart, ending up 21st.
After a tough time in Northamptonshire, the F4 side of the team can now enjoy a four-week break in action, before heading to Zandvoort in the Netherlands in July, where the GB3 Championship will also be on track.
Alex Berg – #48
Race 1: Start -21 Result – 16
Race 2: Start – 22 Result – DNF
Race 3: Start – 22 Result – 21
Championship: 13 (34 points)
“It’s been unfortunate that personally I’ve been lacking on one lap qualifying pace as I should be in the top 10 and the car felt really hooked up. I have the potential, but I think my mind gets in the way of it a bit. It was my first time driving Silverstone in the dry since November last year, so I was a little bit nervous adapting to the conditions in race one.
“Race two was unlucky as I gained a spot on the start and then going through the esses I hit a front wing that was in the middle of the track. That gave me a puncture and suspension damage which caused me to DNF. Race three started to go alright as I made a couple positions up on the first lap and pretty much just rode it out in 14th until the last lap. I saw a gap going into The Loop on the final lap so I pushed for the move, I believe I was alongside, but we both ended up spinning and the car wouldn’t restart for a while, so I finished last. I’m not sure what happened this weekend, but we can only learn from it.”
Kai Daryanani – #8
Race 1: Start – 12 Result – 9
Race 2: Start – 17 Result – 11
Race 3: Start – 17 Result – DNF
Championship: 15 (29 points)
“In qualifying we were comfortably in the top 10 but on what would have been my best lap I had quite a bit of traffic which messed up my position. In race one I started P11 and made up a couple of places up to P7. I tried to make a move round the outside of one of the Argenti’s, so I ran around the outside of him, but it didn’t stick because I was off track, and I backed off a little bit to make sure it was legal. I was starting to catch up to the top five, so the pace was there, which was encouraging.
“Race two was decent as we made up a good number of positions from the start. After the Safety Car came in, it was difficult to pass and didn’t seem like anyone else was making too much ground. In the last race I was on the inside coming out of the chicane, my front wheels were alongside the car in front’s rears, and he turned in on me. There are positives to take away awe saw that we had top six pace, but we got a bit unlucky with qualifying. We will do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen for the next round.”
Nina Gademan – #3
Race 1: Start – 22 Result – 15 (Rookie 5)
Race 2: Start – 19 Result – 17 (Rookie 8)
Race 3: Start – 19 Result – 18 (Rookie 8)
Championship Points: 20 (15 points)
Rookie Cup: 5 (100 points)
“In qualifying I felt we should have gone on wets instead of slicks, as I couldn’t get them working, so I was P19. I think on the wets we could have gone top 10 in my opinion. Starting in P22 for race one, the lights took 15 seconds to go out instead of five, so by the time we had the actual start my foot wasn’t at the biting point anymore and I lost quite a few positions. The pace was good, and I had some nice overtakes, so those are positives we can take away.
“Race two was quite disappointing, but we take the positives. We took a wrong decision with the tyres, and I struggled a bit with the balance and the pace. Race three I got a really good start. I think we went up five places on the first half lap, then cars crashed in front of me, I had to avoid it, and I was at the back again. We showed that we have the pace in free practice and because we made a few wrong decisions it didn’t turn out the best.”
