Rapid at the Ring
Italian F4 Championship, Rd.3, Hungaroring, 6/7 July 2019
Jonny and his Jenzer team were able to ring the changes last weekend when he posted some very encouraging results at the Hungaroring. Despite fierce opposition from 34 other contenders, he established himself in the top six during both of Friday’s free practice sessions.
Things didn’t work out quite so well for him in the first of Saturday’s timed qualifying runs. Unfortunately, this session was red flagged halfway through. At the restart, Jonny was caught in heavy traffic and he qualified down in 14th position. Next time out he secured 5th place. His 2nd fastest lap put him 6th in the rankings.
In Saturday’s race, Jonny slipped down to 17th at the start but then fought his way through and finished 11th at the flag. “The Hungaroring is quite a narrow track and overtaking is quite difficult, so all things considered I was quite happy with my performance,” he said afterwards.
He took advantage of a better starting grid for the next race on Sunday and came home in 5th position. Jonny spent much of this race trying to overtake the Brazillian driver, Gianluca Petecof, but couldn’t quite find sufficient pace to execute a clean manoeuvre. On this occasion, discretion proved to be the better part of valour.
Petecof’s speed was plain to see in Race 3 when he crossed the line ahead of everyone else. After losing a couple of places early on, Jonny was able to finish 7th in this one and ended the day on a very satisfactory note.
“I’ve learned a lot during my short time in F4,” said Jonny afterwards. “I’m now starting to work well with the team and it’s beginning to pay off in the results that we are getting. Hopefully our improvement will continue this weekend when we are at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.”.
Jonny wishes to thank Red Bull Racing, and Jenzer Motorsport for all their invaluable support.
Photos: © Dutch Photo Agency / Red Bull Content Pool
