IT WAS a debut to remember for former Southam College student Alex Sedwick after he secured a top ten finish at his first French F4 race on the very technical Magny-Cours circuit.
The teenager, who enjoyed a practice session at the legendary Le Mans circuit earlier this year, was in action at the fifth round of the French F4 Championship in what was Sedwick’s first single-seater race.
A total of 17 riders, ten of which were juniors, took to the track on Sunday, but Sedwick’s adventure began with a 30-minute practice session on Friday morning, at the end of which Sedwick had recorded the eighth fastest time.
The afternoon qualifying session did not quite go to plan for Sedwick who suffered braking issues and finished 15th on the grid for Saturday’s race and Sunday’s final event.
After fixing the problems thanks to the help of his team, Sedwick made a bright start on Saturday as he moved up the field to 11th place.
One more place would have given him pole position in the second race as the top ten positions are reversed.
But despite pushing hard he narrowly missed out on tenth place by just six tenths of a second at the flag and finished as the fifth-placed junior driver.
The second race saw Sedwick have to avoid a spinning car early on which saw him drop back down the field before he was given a drive through penalty for a jump start.
He re-joined the race in 16th position before a determined finish saw him move back up the field and he crossed the line in 11th position (sixth fastest junior).
The name of the game for Sunday’s final race was an overall top ten finish and a lightning start saw Sedwick move up one place at the start.
Mid-race, two drivers came together in the pack which split the cars up into two groups and allowed the front five to make a break.
On the final lap Sedwick was in 13th position but he was able to move up two more positions and a final dash to the finish live to him go past another to take tenth (fifth place junior).
“What a weekend,” said Sedwick. “Racing at Magny-Cours, my first race in a single-seater, a top ten finish against some of Europe’s best F4 drivers – not a bad weekend’s work.
“I have learnt a lot this weekend which will help me for the future. The floor failing on the car and then the braking issue, which the mechanics could not fix until after qualifying, was a tough break.
“Once the car was fixed, my lap time improved by just under a second a lap.
“I must say a big thank you to Lockton MIS Motorsport who has helped me in so many ways and finishing in the top ten in my first F4 race weekend and fifth place junior driver, is a great start.”
