Wisbech racer George Russell has maintained his lead in the BRDC Formula 4 Championship after the latest round of races at Oulton Park.

The 16-year-old, of Lanan Racing, won his fourth race of the campaign on Friday but suffered a frustrating Saturday - he finished sixth in one race and was taken out by title rival Raoul Hyman in the other race.

At the half way point of the season, he leads Hyman and Will Palmer by 20 points.

In the first race, Russell bounced back from a recent bout of chicken pox to get pole position in qualifying and rocketed away from the field, building up a huge nine-second advantage to comfortably win the first race of the weekend.

He said: “It was fantastic. I’ve always been confident around Oulton, even though I had only done two days of testing there since my career in cars began. I really like the circuit and Lanan have a great set-up there.

“Oulton is a difficult track to overtake on, so I knew that if I converted my pole into the lead and kept ahead for the first three quarters of a lap that I’d win, as long as I made no mistakes, and that’s exactly what happened.

“Just as we were in qualifying, we were so quick and consistent in the race. I knew that if I got the start right we’d be tough to beat.”

The hot conditions of Friday turned to rain for Saturday’s two races. Russell’s win put him eighth on the reversed grid for race two, and he made headway to sixth place. But he could not get past the defensive driver in front and instead settled for points.

Russell was second on the grid for the final race. On the second lap, Hyman got a run on him out of Old Hall bend and then ran into him at the left-handed Cascades, putting them both out of the race. Officials punished Hyman with a 10-place grid penalty for the next race.

Russell said: “The Saturday races were a little bit disappointing considering the speed we had on Friday.

“Still, I know we’ve found a few things that we’ve improved in the car and I know we’ll be strong from now on – it’s looking good.”

Russell’s next outing is back at Silverstone – where he took his first two wins earlier this year – on August 16-17.