After displaying promising pace in pre-event testing, a wet and chaotic Barcelona weekend made for a challenging Formula Winter Series finale for Ella Lloyd, who nevertheless qualified an impressive 18th on Sunday morning and recovered from the back in an incident-filled race 3.
Ella Lloyd’s pace went unrewarded as she endured a frustrating weekend in the Formula Winter Series at Barcelona. After displaying promising pace in pre-event testing, conditions changed on Saturday which led to the cancellation of the first qualifying and a truncated opening race.
Nonetheless, Lloyd bounced back to qualify an impressive 18th in wet conditions on Sunday morning. After receiving race-ending contact on lap one of race two, the Rodin Motorsport driver recovered from an off-track moment in race three to finish in 26th position.
Ella arrived at Barcelona fresh off her competitive single seater debut in the previous round of the Formula Winter Series at Motorland Aragon. The Rodin Motorsport driver impressed throughout the weekend, with a number of hard-charging drives where her race pace caught the eye. Finishing all three races, Lloyd left Aragon with a best result of 20th coming in race two. With an expanded grid heading to Barcelona, a track Lloyd had tested at previously, she was aiming to continue her progress among the midfield runners.
The weekend began with four practice sessions split over Thursday and Friday, with the grid of 36 drivers logging laps in dry conditions. Lloyd’s fastest time was set during the first session on Thursday, with a 1:43.095 placing her 17th overall and just seven tenths of a second away from the fastest time. Completing 66 laps across the four sessions, Ella was eager to build upon this experience as action got underway in earnest on Saturday morning.
A change of conditions on Saturday morning saw heavy rain leading to challenging conditions for the drivers. Just two minutes into the session, the red flag was displayed following an incident for Flavio Olivieri and with conditions failing to improve, the session was not restarted and therefore qualifying was cancelled. As a result, the driver’s fastest times from Friday’s practice were used to set the grid for race one with Ella lining up in 32nd position.
Conditions remained extremely challenging for the opening race of the weekend and as a result, the drivers took to the track behind the safety car. Only a handful of laps were completed before race control deemed the track conditions unsafe for racing, with the race subsequently cancelled and no points awarded as a result.
After a challenging first day for the Formula Winter Series drivers at Barcelona, the second qualifying session on Sunday morning would provide a chance to reset and focus on a busy day of action to come. Track conditions were still damp for qualifying with all drivers on the wet tyres. Ella began finding the limits and slowly improved her lap times in the first half of the session.
With just three minutes to go, a red flag brought the session to a halt before drivers were given one final flying lap to improve their position. A fantastic effort from Lloyd saw her set the 18th fastest time, with the Rodin Motorsport driver showing excellent speed in sector one especially. Her ability to find the limit in ever-changing conditions was particularly impressive and set Lloyd up well for the two races to follow.
Ella began race two of the grid from 25th position with the drivers second fastest times from qualifying two used to set the starting order. Conditions were now bright and sunny with all drivers on the slick tyres. Lloyd made a good start on the run down into turn one, before receiving contact from Jenzer Motorsport driver Edouard Borgna into turn two which sent both drivers into the gravel and ended Ella’s race early. It was a disappointing end to a race which had great potential, with the Rodin Motorsport driver caught up in an incident which was not of her making.
Following her excellent qualifying effort and a penalty for a driver ahead, Lloyd started the final race of the weekend in 17th. Eager to make a clean start, despite lacking the experience of her rivals at the track, Ella dropped to 24th at the conclusion of the opening lap. Lap two saw frantic action throughout the field with the Rodin Motorsport driver doing a superb job to avoid a spinning car and hold onto 24th position as the safety car was deployed.
Restarting in 23rd following a false-start penalty for Flavio Olivieri, Lloyd was keen to move forward but an off-track moment saw her pick up front wing damage and she was therefore forced to pit. Fortunately, this coincided with a second safety car period which allowed Ella to catch the rear of the field, although now down in 33rd position.
The second restart of the race was equally frantic and a further incident saw the drivers under green flag conditions for just half a lap. This allowed Lloyd to move inside the top-30, and following smart work from the marshals, the race was able to resume for a final two-lap shootout. Following damage for Adam Hideg and a broken front wing for Filippo Fiorentino, Lloyd was able to close the race in fine fashion by gaining three on-track positions to take the checkered flag in 27th. This result was improved to 26th following a post-race penalty to round off a character-building weekend for the Rodin Motorsport driver.
Ella has shown promising speed in her debut single seater races and this should encourage her ahead of a full campaign in the British F4 Championship. At Barcelona, Lloyd showed her versatility in challenging conditions with the second qualifying session a particular highlight.
By delivering an excellent lap as conditions evolved, she displayed good car control which rewarded her with a 17th place starting position in a competitive 36 car field. Lloyd will be looking to take these positives into her maiden full-season F4 campaign in which she will drive for leading British team JHR Developments, with the British F4 season getting underway at Donington Park in April.
