Three podium finishes at Thruxton saw Epping racer Ayrton Simmons retain his lead at the top of the British F4 Championship.

The 17-year-old kicked off the weekend in style on Saturday in race one as he pulled off a superb drive to finish in second place, despite starting twelfth after serving a ten-place grid penalty which carried over from the previous round in Donington due to contact.

After finishing in third place in race two, the JHR Developments driver was to make it a trio of podiums in the final round, as Simmons managed to fend off Dennis Hauger and Patrik Pasma to secure second place in an enthralling contest at Thruxton, which saw the 17-year-old pull off some fantastic manoeuvres early on.

Having enjoyed mixed fortunes at Donington Park in round two a couple of weeks ago, Simmons was delighted to pick up a strong points haul at the weekend to get himself back on track.

He said: “I think leading up to the weekend, we knew it was going to be a good one. Donington was a bit disappointing and we didn’t score as many points as we would have wanted as a team. I think we had to give it our all at Thruxton to bounce back, which we did in the end.

“Qualifying went really well as we qualified second. Unfortunately, we carried out a penalty from the last race at Donnington which knocked us ten places back. We knew we had that penalty so we tried to qualify as high as possible so we wouldn’t have to start from last.

“For the first race, we started in twelfth and the team just said to me keep a cool head and if you can finish in the top six, then you’ll be alright. I was in sixth at the end of the first lap so I had to try and look for more and I ended up finishing in second, which I never imagined and it was absolutely brilliant. We got three podiums over the weekend, picked up some amazing points and are still leading the championship, so I’m delighted.”

Second place in race three ensured Simmons returned to the top of the pile in the table, having briefly lost first place to Kiern Jewiss after the Double R Racing driver took two wins from the first two races at Thruxton.

The Epping racer has spoken of his ambitions of winning the title this year previously and despite leading the championship after three rounds, the 17-year-old is keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

He said: “It was a bit disappointing to hear that we were knocked down to second after the second race. But as I said to everyone and the team, it’s still early days and we’ve still got so many more races.

“I’m not going to think that I have to finish above of Kiern. I’m just going to take it race-by-race and when it gets to the closing stages of the championship, then I will be focusing a bit more on that side of things. It’s nice to be back on top. But it’s tight and it’s still early days. We’ve just got to keep doing what we are doing, carry on this momentum and we are looking pretty racy for Oulton Park.”