The BTCC and its support events made their way to Cheshire last weekend, which saw the British F4 Oulton Park Weekend 2017. Jamie Caroline had been in fantastic form throughout 2017, having taken all three wins at Thruxton in the previous round; could he keep up the pace for Oulton? Caroline continued his dominance in qualifying, setting the fastest time from Logan Sargeant and Alex Quinn. The second fastest times, also used for qualifying, again saw Caroline top the table, with Oscar Piastri second, ahead of Sargeant.
The first race saw a wet but drying track on Saturday, and Caroline sprinted off from pole position, and was in dominant form as he sped to his eighth victory of the season, equalling Lando Norris’s series record, and with plenty more races left this year. Quinn took second place, with Linus Lundqvist in third, and also taking the fastest lap of the race.
The wet weather had an impact on the races all day and on the calendar, so the second race which was to be held on Saturday afternoon did not happen, with the cars returning to the grid on Sunday afternoon. The reverse grid gave Piastri pole position, and he made good use of it at the beginning of the race, making a quick start as he was chased down by Sargeant. Caroline made an uncharacteristic error on the first lap which saw him drop down the field before a charge through, only for him to make contact with team mate Patrik Pasma, causing a huge smash into the tyre barrier. The race was red flagged, giving Piastri the win of the shortened seven lap race, which scores half points due to being less than 75% distance, with Sargeant second and Pasma third.
The missing race has been provisionally scheduled for the Knockhill weekend, and the next outing for the teams and drivers is at Croft in three weeks.
Meanwhile here are a handful of photos from Oulton.
