The Richardson Racing team endured a character building weekend on track as the F4 British Championship certified by FIA, powered by Ford EcoBoost headed for Brands Hatch for the third meeting of the year.
Buoyed by a win on his series debut at Snetterton, driver Georgi Dimitrov was eager to build on the progress made in Norfolk around the tight and twisty Brands Hatch Indy circuit and he showed encouraging pace in the two Friday practice sessions.
Qualifying would prove to be a close affair, with Georgi ending up in 18th place despite the fact that his best time was less than seven-tenths of a second away from pole position.
That left him with work to do in races two and three, but on the front row of the grid for race one thanks to the full reverse grid.
Unfortunately for Georgi, an engine fuelling issue would hamper his chances from the start as he slipped back to seventh on lap one of the opening race, and he had dropped back to tenth when the race went under caution after an incident elsewhere.
Sadly, before the action could resume, Georgi was forced to bring the car into the pits and retire when it became apparent that the issue would prevent him from making it to the finish.
The arrival of rain as the cars prepared to leave the paddock for race two left teams in a quandary on which way to go with tyres, with Georgi amongst those to go with slick rubber despite light rain falling.
It looked like being the right choice in the early stages as, despite starting from the pitlane, Georgi was soon making his way forwards as circuit conditions improved. Having battled his way into the top ten however, Georgi was once again forced to bring the car into the pits having suffered the same problem as in race one.
Unfortunately for Georgi, a tough weekend would end with a third retirement in race three after a re-occurrence of the fuelling troubles, leaving him without any points from a weekend that had promised more.
With the same recurring, and as yet undiagnosed, issue being the cause of all three retirements across the weekend, the engine has now been returned to the supplier for full inspection and diagnosis ahead of the next round of the season at Oulton Park in late July.
“It’s been a really unfortunate weekend for us as the team has worked really hard this weekend and we haven’t been rewarded for it,” he said. “We found something that really improved the balance of the car, but circumstances outside our control meant that we weren’t able to benefit from it.
“We need to head back to base and try to fully understand why we have had these problems, but I know that the team will leave no stone unturned to make sure we can come back stronger.”