Reigning British F4 champion Deagen Fairclough got his elbows out at Silverstone, as he recovered from a difficult opening day of the season to score strong points at the home of the British Grand Prix.
The Silverstone Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award winner had qualified 16th and 10th for the opening two races of the season, but didn’t get away from the line on the formation lap of the first race, and had to battle his way from the pit lane to 17th.
Overnight changes between the Saturday and Sunday necessitated rear of the grid starting positions for the next two races, but Fairclough again showed the fighting abilities that led to his British F4 success. Before penalties were applied, he gained 10 places in race two, but it was in race three where he stunned the paddock by surging from 25th to seventh in the 25-minute final contest!
In all, it meant that the young Brit gained 35 places during the races across the event, leaving him in confident mood heading to Zandvoort.
“It’s nice to end the weekend strong,” he said. “We bounced back from a few issues and I’m looking forward to Zandvoort now, a track that I absolutely love, and I’ve done well previously there.
“To end the Silverstone weekend strong and gain that many positions and get the elbows out was nice because I haven’t done that in a while. I appreciate the team, they’ve worked so hard all weekend and to now be in a good space is really good.”
With so many overtaking moves across the event, Fairclough admitted it was difficult to choose a favourite manoeuvre.
“I thought I was going to be collected in a few of them to be honest! But it was great racing, I think the move on Kanato [Le] at the Loop was cool, late braking and I got it stopped somehow. But there were so many overtakes I couldn’t really choose one.”
Despite lying only 14th in the early standings, Fairclough’s aspirations of joining this year’s title battle remains unchanged, especially with the pack so tightly packed in the standings.
“Silverstone has given us that confidence boost especially, and in the reverse grid we’ve proven we can make those positions. It’s confidence boosting and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the year. We’ve got a championship to win ahead of us!”