Henry retains top four slot with Zandvoort podium
Rising star Henry Joslyn moved on to a tally of seven podiums for the season as the Wera Tools F4 British Championship certified by the FIA headed to mainland Europe for the sixth round of the season.
Henry made the trip to the Netherlands for a weekend of action at Circuit Zandvoort looking to try and replicate the strong performances he had secured at Oulton Park a little over a month earlier, where he took his Fortec Motorsport-run car to a pair of podium finishes.
The talented teenager was also keen to bounce back to form following a challenging outing in two non-championship races supporting the British Grand Prix earlier in July, where he found himself out of the fight for the leading positions.
Having run inside the top six throughout pre-event testing, Henry produced a strong run in qualifying to set the third quickest time and earn a spot on the second row of the grid for the final race of the weekend.
His second fastest time would mean Henry lined up on pole for the opening race of the weekend, although a sluggish start saw him lose places off the line, dropping down to third spot on the opening lap.
Following an early safety car period to allow a stricken car to be recovered from the circuit, Henry would spend the entire race in a three-way fight for victory with Martin Molnar and Fionn McLaughlin.
Despite his best efforts to overhaul the pair ahead, Henry would be forced to settle for third place and went into the reverse grid second race hoping to race his way forwards from tenth at the start.
After a multi-car accident on the opening lap saw the second race halted, Henry was able to use his strong pace to work his way through into sixth spot by the end of lap four, once again going wheel-to-wheel with McLaughlin for position.
An unfortunate clash however between the pair late on would result in Henry being forced into retirement.
Nursing pain in his hand caused from the race two collision, the start of the final race saw Henry slip back to fifth before an incident further down the field brought out the red-flag on the second lap.
A small error on the opening lap of the restarted race resulted in Henry running wide at the final corner, dropping him down to the lower reaches of the top 10 before recovering to eighth when two of his rivals made contact ahead.
This led to the safety car being called out, with Henry putting pressure on Thomas Bearman after the restart before another caution ended his quest to get ahead.
The disrupted race would conclude with a red flag when a car stopped on track, leaving Henry in eighth place and ensuring that he retains fourth in the driver standings going into round seven at Knockhill next month.
“The weekend started in positive fashion with a strong performance in qualifying and a podium in the opening race, although it was a little frustrating that we lost out at the start as I feel we had the pace to challenge for a first win,” he said.
“Race two was then going really well and I’d made up ground until the unfortunate clash with Fionn that forced me to retire and also left me nursing an injury to my hand for the final race. It made it really difficult behind the wheel and certainly impacted on my performance, so to salvage a top ten in those circumstances is still very pleasing.”
“The full focus now is on recovery to make sure I’m fighting fit when we head to Knockhill next time out.”
