Kiern Jewiss was, once again, the driver to beat at Oulton Park this past weekend as the Double R Racing youngster dominated free practice and qualifying before finishing the weekend with one win, three podiums, two pole positions and two fastest laps!

Following the traditional format, Friday hosted the weekend’s practice sessions at the 2.23-mile circuit in Cheshire and Kiern, with his Double R team, came flying out of the blocks. Setting the tone for the remainder of the weekend, Kiern led the morning session by three-tenths to his Double R stablemate, Paavo Tonteri – completing a one-two for the Double R team.

Kiern then continued his strong form in the afternoon session as he again finished in 1st place, this time breaking into the 1-minute-22’s as he led another Double R one-two and laid down a marker as the driver to beat this weekend.

“It’s the perfect start to the weekend, 1st for me in both the sessions and a Double R one-two in both – it’s testament to the hard work the team have put in! It’s still early in the weekend and the real business starts tomorrow but it’s the ideal foundation to build our weekend on.”

Saturday morning started with qualifying in the morning and for Kiern, after dominating practice, it was the perfect opportunity for him to secure his maiden F4 pole position. With the eyes all set on the FM Conway-sponsored youngster heading into qualifying, Kiern delivered what was expected of him as he blitzed the twenty-minute qualifying session.

Securing pole position for races one and three with his fastest and second fastest lap times respectively, Kiern posted six lap times that were all capable of securing him pole position – outlining the 15-year-old’s raw speed behind the wheel at Oulton.

“We picked up where we left off yesterday,” said Jewiss. “The car feels mega and our race pace is also strong so I’m really happy.

“The car is set up so well. It gives you so much confidence as a driver and that’s so important. We’ll see what we can do in the races. We start from the best place so we’ll try to get away well and build from there to win.”

“The reverse grid race is going to be difficult because it’s so hard to pass around here. That race will be about damage limitation. We know we have the pace. It’s clear for everyone to see and now we need to do our best to capitalise.”

“I want to say a big thank you to FM Conway, HCL Technologies and MB Partners, as well as the team. It means so much to get my first British F4 pole, especially in this way and hopefully, we can come away from this weekend leading the championship.”

Starting from pole for the first time in 2018, Kiern bogged down from his starting spot and was jumped off the line by Dennis Hauger and Patrik Pasma – falling back to third place. Kiern responded almost immediately however and passed Pasma on the second lap.

Kiern then set about hunting down Hauger, who had pulled out a 1.2-second gap to Kiern in the opening two laps. Lapping almost three-tenths quicker than Hauger, Kiern set the fastest lap of the race on lap six and was soon on the tail of the Arden driver – looking for a way past on the narrow Oulton Park circuit.

With just two laps remaining, Kiern launched his attack into the Island Bend and the pair made contact but both managed to continue on their way to the chequered flag largely unscathed, with Kiern leading Hauger across the finishing line.

Following the race, however, Jewiss was handed a three second time penalty for ‘driving in a manner incompatible with general safety’ as a result of the incident with Hauger – with the penalty demoting Kiern back behind Hauger to second place.

“At the end of the day it’s only a few points we dropped because of the penalty,” said Jewiss. “We’ve still taken the lead in the championship.

“Simmons starts on pole for tomorrow’s first race so I’m expecting to probably lose the championship lead, but then I start the last race from pole where I intend to get it back.Overall it was a good race and the car was brilliant. I think me being in this Double R-prepared car is the quickest combination on the grid at the moment.”

“At the start, I probably had the clutch a bit too high which meant the car was close to rolling forward. I was wary of getting a false start so I dropped the clutch down, as well as the throttle and that left me slow off the line.”

Starting from 5th place for the reverse grid race, Kiern got a strong start off the line and passed Patrik Pasma with a perfectly judged move down the inside of the Arden driver at Lodge Corner, moving himself up into fourth.

Showing great pace, it wasn’t long before Kiern moved into the podium places after dispatching teammate Paavo Tonteri with a lunge down the inside into Old Hall.

Now in the podium places, Kiern was hustling Jack Doohan for second place and but couldn’t find a clear way past the Arden driver. Playing the long game, Kiern didn’t risk losing good championship points and stayed behind Doohan to finish race two in third place to mark his second podium finish of the weekend.

“I’m pleased to get third. This race was about damage limitation and we did that well. I pulled off a couple of good moves on the way to the podium. I didn’t know if the move on Pasma would work out and thought there was a chance there could be contact, but we both got through the corner.”

“Then I pulled off a good move down the inside of my team-mate into turn one for third. I was quick again in that race, but it’s hard to pass around here and once you are behind a car like I was with Doohan you lose downforce. It makes things even trickier.”

“I’m looking forward to the final race of the weekend. Hopefully, we can get a good start from pole and take maximum points, as well as the lead in the championship.”

The final race of the weekend saw Kiern line the grid from pole position and the young Brit got a faultless start from his grid spot – pulling away into the lead unchallenged as he stretched out a 1.2-second gap at the front by the end of lap one.

Untouchable for the duration of the 15 lap contest, Kiern disappeared into the distance as he took his fourth win of the season by a margin of almost eight seconds – setting the fastest lap of the race on his penultimate tour of the circuit with a lap of 1m 24.191s.

It was the perfect end to the weekend for Kiern who was the fastest driver on circuit throughout the weekend and his superb performances sees him leave the Cheshire circuit leading the championship by 16 points to title rival Ayrton Simmons.

“I got off the line just like I wanted to,” said Jewiss. “It meant I could take the racing line into the first corner and then crack on with my race, leaving everyone else to battle behind.

“We knew we had the pace this weekend after free practice and we wanted to finish with the fastest lap on the last lap of the final race, but we had to settle for doing it on the penultimate lap. We were having some fun out there.”

“I want to say big thanks again to Double R, FM Conway, HCL Technologies and MB Partners, as well as everyone who has supported me this weekend: friends, family and fans.”

“As soon as I pulled away well off the line I felt so happy and pleased to make amends for race one. It feels great to finally end a weekend leading the championship. It’s taken a little longer than we would have liked to get there, but hopefully we can stay on top until the very end now.”