The American racer took two victories on Sunday to cement his advantage of eight points over his nearest rival. Carlin teammate Nazim Azman also graced the podium over the course of the four races on offer this weekend while rookie Guilherme Peixoto enjoyed solid, consistent progress throughout.
After two days of testing, Saturday brought the first opportunity to pit against one another in earnest. During the morning qualifying, it was clear that the Carlin trio were looking strong; Frederick and Azman set the second and third fastest times respectively while Peixoto was comfortably in the top ten in eighth.
Going from the front row of the grid pole-sitter Louis Foster reacted early to the starting lights, Frederick followed suit leading to the pair being handed ten second time penalties. Frederick had crossed the line in the lead but was penalised down to eighth. However this, in turn, elevated Azman up to a podium position and Peixoto sixth.
Azman said of his podium, “I think P3 is good but with the pace we had I think I could have won the race if I’d just had a good start, because the front two in front of me obviously were penalised, but at the end of the day a podium is a podium and I’ll take it either way, it’s still a good start to the season.”
This solid result for the Carlin drivers meant that they were on the back foot for the reverse grid race as they started down the order, and at a circuit like Oulton Park overtaking was somewhat tricky. They tried their best to improve on their positions but as it was Peixoto crossed the line ninth, Azman 12th and Frederick 14th.
Sunday brought a reset for the field as they looked ahead to two further races. From second on the grid Frederick stormed off the line to take the lead of the race away from Foster before working on pulling a gap – a feat he managed in complete and utter style to cross the line with an eight-second lead. Azman also had a charge of a race and was quickly in second position and produced an assured drive to hold off Ulysse de Pauw and clinch his second podium finish of the weekend. Once again Peixoto claimed a top ten finish in eighth – proving his consistency in the challenging championship.
The final race of the weekend had Frederick lining up on pole position and as the lights went out the American refused to look back and brilliantly claimed his second dominant victory of the weekend. Azman crossed the line fourth and Peixoto ninth.
Frederick said, “Another really great race. Not as dominant as the one before today, but a win is a win and a decent margin behind me so I’m really happy. Again the team gave me a great car and we showed some really strong pace.
“In the first couple of laps I was keeping it fairly chilled because I knew a fastest lap in this race didn’t really mean anything whereas in the last race it meant pole in this race. So I was able to have a bit more of a breather but I put in some push laps towards the end to get fastest lap.”
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