Dougie Bolger rounded off an overall strong British F4 weekend at Donington Park with a P5 finish and Rookie podium. The Carlin driver demonstrated some real pace in Saturday’s qualifying and delivered with clean performances in the weekend’s three hectic races.
Due to noise restrictions around the Derbyshire circuit, F4’s Practice Day was held on Thursday. Whilst the morning was mainly spent familiarising themselves and the cars with the track, Dougie showed some real promise in the afternoon session, ending the day inside the top 10. Taking advantage of the quiet Friday, Dougie, his coach and his engineer then walked the 1.9 mile track to fine-tune ahead of Qualifying the next morning.
Saturday was a rare bright and sunny day at Donington, and the F4 cars lined up for Qualifying just shy of midday. Having enjoyed testing here Dougie felt positive for a good session and was quick to set some strong laps. For a solid part of the session Dougie sat in P5, challenging a number of title contenders. At the conclusion of the 20 minutes the Japanese racer was P7, ahead of all his Carlin teammates and just half a second off pole position. Unfortunately, due to a grid penalty following a collision at Silverstone, Dougie would start Race 1 in 12th position.
Knowing he had the pace to compete, Dougie’s aim heading into Race 1 was to gain positions, and he did so successfully. In a close race he drove solidly to avoid incident and was able to bring his car home in 10th place and in the points, with two of his Carlin teammates behind. All focus then turned to Sunday’s races where he would be starting further up the grid.
At the end of the first race day, Dougie stated:
“I was happy with the performance in Qualifying to achieve P7, and then was pleased to finish in the points in Race 1. I hope to keep this momentum going for tomorrow.”
Dougie and the team knew that Race 2 on Sunday morning would be tough, and so prioritised fresh tyres for Race 3. Nonetheless, Dougie had a decent start and even pressured Inthraphuvasak into the first corner. However in order to avoid incident, Dougie dropped back a little and this frustratingly enabled a few cars to slip past. After losing some positions the focus was to fight back, and at the end of a busy race that saw two safety car periods, Dougie crossed the line in P11.
For the final race of the weekend Bolger would line up in 6th position and with fresh tyres. A tricky start meant the 16-year-old was under pressure from lights out, but throughout the 20 minutes he defended well, holding off a number of cars including teammate and championship contender Hedley. At one stage Dougie had slipped into P7 but, taking full advantage of the chaos up ahead, had fought his way into P5 as the chequered flag fell. In addition to this very strong finishing position, Dougie was classified as the 3rd placed Rookie and enjoyed a podium celebration.
Following Race 3, Dougie said:
“It was a tense race from the start to the end but we managed to finish the weekend on a high. Thanks to the fans for all the support and also to everyone at Carlin too.”
Kokoro Performance coach Kieren Clark added:
“After the disappointment of Silverstone it was key that Dougie came back fighting and he just that. We were very pleased with his pace in Qualifying and he defended well in all three races. Before the next race we will focus on fine-tuning his attacking driving with the aim of more podiums in the future.”
Bolger heads to the final round of the 2021 British F4 Championship on 23-24 October at the Brands Hatch GP circuit.
Photography by Jakob Ebrey and Kokoro Media.
