Race Report - Formula Libre

Mondello Park 8-4-7

Mark Reade continued his apprenticeship with the Leastone team with a pair of mature race drives in Formula Libre last weekend. The local teenager had a solid days testing on Saturday where he racked up many miles and crucially brought his lap times significantly with each lap.
Qualifying saw the teenager produce his fastest time of the weekend early in the session but he was unable to reduce it further as the qualifying session was extremely packed with an impressive grid of Libre cars.

Reade’s first real test came at the start of race1 where he coped with his first ever standing start amicably; he even picked up a handful of place into the first corner. He ran an impressive pace for the opening few laps, keeping some more experienced racers at bay until he came upon some lapped traffic.

Things became slightly erratic as two following cars made a last gasp dive while Reade hesitated behind some traffic into turn one but he saw it coming was able to avoid any unnecessary damage. Stuck behind a more powerful but overall slower car in the closing stages Reades lap times dropped off significantly as he just did not have the confidence to make the decisive move.

Reade again made another impressive start in race two and battled hard in the opening laps to maintain the few places he had gained. With the teenager still not fully confident with cars around him he dropped a place early on but pulled off a fine move into Dunlop to regain the place showing he had learned from his encounters with traffic in race 1.

He held station for the remainder of the race as he challengers became frustrated and fell by the wayside. A mature drive to the flag saw Reade pick up his second finish of the day and furthered his confidence in preparation for the first round of the Formula 5 championship next week in Mondello.
“I’m getting more and more comfortable in the car with each lap I get. It’s a big difference form the kart and is slightly daunting having these big cars around me but it’s only a matter of getting use to it I think. I can’t wait to get back into the car again in a fortnights time.” said Reade after his impressive days work.

As mentioned earlier, the Formula 5 season begins in earnest next weekend (22nd of April) where Reade will seek to improve his lap times even further and put some early points on the board.