Bart Harrison dominates at the Red Bull Ring, securing his first (and second) F4 win!

A one-off appearance in the CEZ championship, intended to give Bart experience of the Red Bull Ring circuit with future years and formula in mind. The event was blessed with almost entirely sunny and warm weather.

This was Bart’s first visit to RBR but he topped the time sheets in the first two free practice sessions by around half a second. Given that half the grid tested and raced here last year, that was very impressive and bodes well for future formula, with less practice time available as drivers climb to each next level.

An engine change was required after FP3, which meant missing the next session. This left the one remaining test session to see what the new engine performed like. Thankfully, all was good, and Bart topped the charts again by three tenths.

Qualifying was quite messy with traffic and red flags, but Bart managed to find enough track space to set a time almost four tenths quicker than anyone else and take his first F4 pole position.

A solid start saw Bart pull out a 1.5s lead over the first lap and, despite safety car interruptions, he was never under threat, consistently setting lap times that were quicker than anyone else’s qualifying times, cruising to a ten second lead, and his first F4 race win.

Race two on Sunday morning brought win number two, albeit less dominant. Although it was another lights to flag victory, the margin was only two seconds, with his Argentinian teammate, Gino Trappa, keeping Bart honest all the way. It transpired that Bart had been managing an issue with his brake bias control for the whole race, with the occasional front wheel lock up, but he did enough to take the chequered flag first.

With the top four from race one reversed for the race three grid, Bart started P4. An hour before the race a rain shower left the track wet, but the rain stopped, and a strong breeze was blowing. The big question was will it be too wet for slick tyres. After one reconnaissance lap on slick tyres Bart elected to change to wets. Initially this proved to be the right call, but with the safety car brought out for an early and prolonged period, the slick tyre runners were not compromised as everyone drove slowly behind the safety car, whilst the track became drier by the minute. By the time the safety car went in the track was fully dry, giving the slick runners a huge advantage. Bart managed to hang on for a gritty third place.