Daniella Sutton’s promising Silverstone weekend ends early after race one incident

Daniella Sutton's promising weekend at Silverstone ended abruptly after a race one incident forced her to miss the remaining races; although it was not the end to the event that Sutton had envisaged, she showed good speed across the course of the weekend and was set to challenge for top-10 finishes, having also achieved her best qualifying result of the season.

Photo credits: James Roberts Photography

BRSCC Fiesta Junior Championship scholarship winner Daniella Sutton endured an unfortunate weekend at Silverstone as a race one incident ended her event prematurely. After achieving her best qualifying result to date, Sutton was looking to challenge for positions inside the top-10 on the high-speed Silverstone National circuit.

Misfortune struck the 20Ten Racing driver on lap five of race one when she rolled the car after clipping a kerb while avoiding an incident ahead. With the damage too severe to be repaired, Daniella made her commentary debut in the remaining races to display her off-track skills.

Sutton returned to the venue of her BRSCC Fiesta Junior Championship debut aiming to fight for positions towards the top-10. Competing on the International layout in the season opening non-championship round, Daniella adapted superbly to the challenges of car racing and secured a best finish of ninth overall. Since then, the 20Ten Racing driver has displayed excellent promise and was aiming to convert this into strong finishes on the Silverstone National circuit with the teenage drivers tackling three races across the event.

Qualifying was held in fine conditions on Saturday morning and Daniella made an excellent start to the session, setting the overall fastest opening sector on her second flying lap. For the majority of the drivers, the tyres produced peak performance in the middle portion of the session and this was the moment in which Sutton set her quickest time of the session. Her fastest lap of 1:12.203 placed her tenth overall, ninth among the drivers in the MK7 class drivers, while showing consistently strong pace in sector one.

Sutton lined up tenth on the grid for the opening race of the weekend, ninth in the MK7 class. It was a good initial launch from the 20Ten Racing driver but she came under pressure from Callie Clifford on the run down to Becketts on the opening lap. Contact from the JamSport Racing driver edged Sutton wide and this lost her momentum down the Wellington Straight. Ending the opening lap 12th overall, tenth in the MK7 class, Daniella was looking to find her qualifying speed to push back towards the top-10 positions.

On lap two, Sutton was among the fastest drivers on the track with her speed in the first part of the lap once again impressive. The close-knit racing of the BRSCC Fiesta Junior Championship saw Daniella running less than five seconds off the lead as the young drivers began lap four. Although losing out to Jenson Mason, Sutton was gaining momentum on lap five and was challenging Mason and Clifford.

As the two drivers ahead made contact and ran wide at Brooklands, Sutton took avoiding action and contact with a kerb rolled the car. Fortunately, she was able to walk away unharmed, but the car sustained too much damage to be repaired for races two and three on Sunday.

Instead of racing, Daniella was able to try her hand at commentary as she joined the BRSCC team for the pair of races held on Sunday. This was great experience for Sutton who could develop her media skills which she learnt as part of the BRSCC Fiesta Junior Championship scholarship.

Although it was not the end to the event that Sutton had envisaged, she showed good speed across the course of the weekend and was set to challenge for top-10 finishes. Achieving her best qualifying result of the season was a sign of this pace and she will be looking to sustain this into the final rounds of her rookie campaign.

The next round of the BRSCC Fiesta Junior Championship will take place at Thruxton, a new circuit to all the drivers, on the weekend of 21st/22nd September.