Kiern Jewiss enjoyed a successful weekend of racing with a strong points haul and a podium finish at BRDC British Formula 3’s away fixture at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.
17-year-old Kiern came from behind in all three races to score a triple lot of points to add to his campaign’s tally in a weekend where he gained sixteen places across the three races, claimed one fastest lap and made a trip to the podium to move himself up to 5th in the championship standings.
The FM Conway-sponsored driver headed out onto the 4.352-mile circuit and began setting competitive times. On lap three, he set his fastest time of the session which was a 2:18.847 to put him eighth overall when the chequered flag was waved. This meant that he would start the race one on Saturday from P8 and his second-fastest lap time of 2:19.111 was only enough to secure him 10th on the grid for race three.
The first race at Spa provided plenty of action for the Morgan Bros-sponsored driver and from the start, he was immediately displaying quick lap times and on lap four he was able to make up two places to be running in sixth – and closing in on Clement Novalak.
While Kiern worked to reduce the gap in front, he also began to pull a healthy gap to Ulysse De Pauw. By the closing stages of the race, he was comfortably in sixth when Neil Verhagen in front was forced to pit. This promoted Kiern to fifth from where he crossed the line to secure a healthy amount of points.
The second race at Spa was never going to be easy for Kiern with the Douglas Motorsport driver starting from P14. Despite the grid position, Kiern rose to the challenge and climbed six places to finish comfortably inside the top-10 in P8.
On Saturday morning, the British F3 championship was ready to go racing again at the iconic Spa circuit. Kiern – who has been no stranger to performing some incredible overtakes – again demonstrated his ability to pass his competitors in what was a closely fought race.
Kiern was running in 10th place as the cars headed onto their final lap. However, not content with this he pushed harder to close the gap to De Pauw and Novalak in front. At the Bus Stop Chicane, the final corner of the race, Kiern performed an incredible move to overtake both competitors and claim eighth position in the process.
For the final event in Spa, Kiern was hungry for silverware and, after an intense and thrilling race, this was his much-deserved reward!
On the opening lap, Kiern got a good start off the line but was soon boxed in and did well to avoid any contact as the grid bottlenecked into turn one. Getting a good run out of La Source, Kiern was abe to breeze past two competitors.
Keeping the momentum rolling, Kiern made light work of another two rivals on lap three and continued his assault towards the podium. On lap four, Kiern was able to get another fantastic run down the Kemmel Straight and was late on the brakes to get past Hampus Ericsson.
Now set on chasing down Manuel Maldonado, Kiern pulled off a late lunged down the inside of Maldonado at La Source and thirty seconds later breezed past Verhagen on the Kemmel Straight to put himself into third, all while he had set the back-to-back fastest laps of the race.
Speaking after the weekend, Jewiss said: “I’ve really enjoyed this weekend. I really enjoyed the racing – although it’s a track I wasn’t looking forward to. I thought it would be one of my worst tracks of the year, but it turned out pretty good so I’m really happy.
“We didn’t get the best result in qualifying but we found a few bits that we could improve on and once they were sorted we were definitely one of the quickest out on the track. Now we have to keep the momentum up as we head to the last two race weekends of the season and try to continue moving up in the championship standings.”
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