Strong weekend at Snetterton for Marinescu in British F4
Alexandra Marinescu will be pleased with her progress during her debut weekend in the highly competitive British F4 Championship. Driving for Richardson Racing, Marinescu made huge improvements during the course of the weekend which led to an impressive race two where she finished in 12th. Alexandra will be hoping to maintain this encouraging pace to the next round of the championship at Knockhill where she’ll aim to move further up the grid and develop her racecraft.
After completing a programme of testing and simulator work over the course of the past few weeks, Alexandra was ready for the opening test session at Snetterton. Her lap times improved steadily during the opening 45 minute session as she regained familiarity with British F4 car and continued to learn the challenging circuit. At the end of the first session, Marinescu was 18th fastest and she worked with the team to help improve the car ahead of the second session later in the afternoon. With further track and extra confidence in the car, Alexandra enjoyed an extremely positive end to the day as she improved on her best time from the first session by one and a half seconds to end the day in 18th, within striking distance of the more experienced drivers.
Qualifying was held on Saturday morning with some overnight rain providing a couple of damp areas for the drivers. Alexandra was out early and slowly improved her lap times during the first half of the session as she settled into 18th position. A red flag was brought out with six minutes to go in the session which led to a final five minute shootout to decide pole position. Marinescu made further improvements on her lap times and ended qualifying in 17th; with her second fastest lap time good enough for 16th on the grid for race three.
The opening race of the weekend began early Saturday afternoon with Alexandra starting in 16th after a grid penalty for another driver was applied. The Richardson Racing driver made a good start and was up in 17th after a safety car was brought out at the end of the opening lap. Marinescu made a good restart and held onto the back of rival Frank Bird before a second safety car was brought up, elevating Alexandra to 15th. Just three racing laps remained when the racing resumed with Marinescu doing a good job to hold off fellow debutant Alexandra Mohnhaupt whilst improving her lap times. Marinescu held on to finish the opening race in 15th, a great effort in her first outing for Richardson Racing.
Race two began late Saturday afternoon with Alexandra starting in 15th courtesy of her result in the opening race. Despite dropping to 18th by the end of the first lap, Marinescu knew she had to set consistent lap times and continue to improve her pace. During the course of the race, her times were good and she was given the chance to catch up to the field when a safety car was deployed on lap six. This lifted Alexandra to 15th when the racing resumed and she was determined to hold this position with the experienced Jack Butel hot on her tail. With a couple of incidents ahead of her, Marinescu improved to 12th and held that position for the final laps to take a superb finish in just her second ever British F4 race. Further improvements were made by Alexandra in terms of her lap times and she should be proud of the way she defended from Butel in the closing stages.
The final race of the weekend began on Sunday afternoon with Alexandra starting from 16thcourtesy of her second fastest time set in qualifying. Marinescu dropped to 18th after the first lap but benefited from a couple of incidents ahead of her to climb to 15th by the end of lap two. Despite losing a position to the rapidly recovering Alex Quinn, Alexandra’s lap times were extremely competitive as the shortened 15 minute race progressed. Fellow debutant Mohnhaupt applied the pressure in the closing stages but Marinescu responded by setting some of her best laps all weekend to hold onto 16th place and complete three trouble free races on her British F4 debut.
Alexandra will be extremely pleased with the progress made during her first full weekend in British F4 after a number of strong finishes. Her performance during race two was highly impressive as she was able to hold off experience rival Jack Butel in the closing stages to secure an excellent 12th place result. Marinescu will be looking forward to the next round of the championship which takes place at the challenging Knockhill circuit in a couple of weeks’ time.