Challenging times for Henry at Donington Park

Rising star Henry Joslyn endured a tough weekend on track in the Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by the FIA as the series headed to Donington Park for the latest event of the season on the full Grand Prix layout.

The biggest field of the season headed for the East Midlands circuit, with pre-event testing giving an indication of how competitive the weekend would be - with less than a second covering the leading 20 drivers. 

Henry was firmly in the mix in sixth spot and he carried his pace into Saturday morning’s qualifying session to set the sixth best time, just 0.001s slower than Fortec Motorsport team-mate Ary Bansal - although there was a slight air of disappointment at not being higher up the order. 

His second fastest time would be good enough to start the opening race of the weekend from ninth spot and a solid run through the 20 minute encounter in cloudy conditions saw Henry rise through to sixth place, having been part of a train of cars fighting for fourth. 

That would prove to be the highlight - in results terms at least - after a difficult Sunday that saw Henry run into problems in both the second and third races of the weekend. 

Race two had looked positive in the early stages as Henry found himself running well inside the top ten, but it would all go wrong on lap seven when he was hit from behind by Fionn McLaughlin going into the Melbourne Hairpin.

Although he was able to rejoin towards the rear of the field, the contact would ultimately cause race-ending damage as Henry was forced into the pits to retire. 

With McLaughlin having been handed a five place grid penalty for the incident, Henry lined up in fifth spot for the final race of the weekend but contact in the early stages resulted in damage to the front wing of his car, leading to a trip off track heading into the Craner Curves. 

Forced to pit for a replacement, Henry rejoined at the back of the field and showed what might have been as he stormed to the fastest lap to at least salvage a championship point.

Henry now lies seventh in the standings ahead of the penultimate weekend of the campaign at Silverstone. 

“It was a tough weekend at Donington Park, which came from the result of qualifying,” he said. “Being in the top six was okay but we could have been higher up, and it left me in a more difficult position for the races.” 

“We gained some ground in race one which was a positive but then races two and three didn’t go to plan for different reasons, which was a shame when the fastest lap in race three showed that we had the pace to challenge for some strong results.”

“I’ve just got to put this weekend behind me and focus on coming out fighting at Silverstone in a few weeks’ time.”