Times in winter testing had been close and qualifying was no exception with Abbi taking two 5th places, just a tenth of a second away from pole.
Race 1 of the weekend got off to a false start, but when racing finally got underway, Abbi emerged from turn 1 in 6th in the middle of a large group. With fighting taking place all around her, Abbi eventually had to settle into 8th behind Ella Lloyd.
Abbi clearly had pace and was repeatedly attacking Lloyd, who was acting like a cork in a bottle, looking for a switch back through turn 1.
Light rain began to fall on the circuit with lap times dropping; these tricky conditions were all Abbi needed to slip past Lloyd at turn 1 and set after the group ahead of her.
With clear air, Abbi was now matching the leaders’ pace, dropping those behind at 0.7 seconds a lap and was closing in on Jack Sherwood and Reza Seewooruthun ahead of her.
Unfortunately, the red flag came out to retrieve a spun car with a few minutes to spare, with Abbi in 7th, halting her charge.
Abbi Pulling:
“At the start I got too much wheelspin and I got swallowed up really, which was very annoying and unfortunate and then I had a lot of work to do after that. I was much faster than the car ahead, but it was it was just finding my way around them.
It was just getting used to the aero-wash around here, following closely, attacking a lot into T1 and finally pushed them into a mistake and got past. Then, after that, the pace at the end was top 3 pace, so just unfortunate what happened at the start and hopefully next time we can gain places instead of lose places.”
Sunday saw torrential rain, leading to severe delays and race 3 being postponed to a later round in the year. Race 2 was able to go ahead in the afternoon however, with the top 12 from qualifying reversed, which meant Abbi lined up in 8th.
Despite the wet weather earlier in the day - the reversed grid Race 2 was dry.
Abbi started from 8th but had a difficult start and was shuffled down to 11th - after Abbi was forced onto the exit kerb at The Old Hairpin, costing her some momentum and a position.
The safety car was soon out, but racing resumed soon after with Abbi in a large group of 12.
Despite Abbi’s best efforts and pushing hard to move forward, it was difficult to make further progress - which was compounded further after she received a 5-second time penalty for exceeding track limits in her pursuit of points.
This penalty demoted her from the battle for the points, into 17th position at the chequered flag once applied.
The 2024 ROKiT F4 British Championship certified by FIA will be racing on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit next on the 11th and 12th May, but Abbi will be back in action next week for Round 2 of F1 Academy in Miami next weekend on the 4-5 May, where she currently leads the championship standings.
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