PREMA’s Zak O’Sullivan has bemused a “tricky” Silverstone round which has dented his F3 title dreams.
O’Sullivan entered his home round sat 38 points off the title lead held by Trident’s Gabriel Bortoleto but endured a difficult weekend from the get-go, as he unintentionally ended up colliding with ART GP’s Kaylen Frederick in Practice, but still managed to finish ninth quickest in the session.
Qualifying though proved much harder with the top 17 split by 0.948 seconds, as O’Sullivan could only put his PREMA on the grid for both races.
The 18 year-old however was left “not really sure about what went wrong,” in an uncharacteristic performance for PREMA, whose highest-placed driver was Paul Aron in sixth position at O’Sullivan’s home event.
Intermittent rain however caused chaos in the Sprint during which O’Sullivan unsuccessfully gambled on wet tyres during a Safety Car period, as a sudden heavy downpour hit Silverstone on Lap 8 but conditions quickly dried after the shower had passed.
Reflecting upon the decision to pit for wet tyres, O’Sullivan commented: “It turned out to be the wrong call boxing for wets, but it was going to be hard to predict that the rain would stop shortly after, and it’s generally hard in these conditions to predict what happens next.”
The Feature Race though failed to bring a happy conclusion to O’Sullivan’s home round after he twice tangled with Frederick, including on Lap 7 as the American shunted him wide at Luffield onto the gravel and into a spin across the track.
O’Sullivan eventually recovered to 19th after post-race penalties were applied amidst another mid-race shower, with the Brit left happy with his pace as he added: “I had contact with another driver and pitted for tyres, and the pace after that was quite strong in clean air.
“Luckily the rain came in the end, and the safety car got out. The pace with the slicks in the wet was also quite good, so we made up quite a few positions.”
The Williams junior however admitted that his home round wasn’t a total write-off as he sits 55 points off Bortoleto heading into the final three rounds of the season, as he concluded: “Obviously not the ideal weekend, but the pace looked promising.”
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