Cotty clinches first Formula 4 podium place
Rising star Emily Cotty scored her first podium in Formula 4 competition in race two of the UAE4 season-opening round at Abu Dhabi.
Starting 11th for the opening race of the year, the Chichester teenager had a great launch to place herself in the top 10 for most of the race as she held off Ferrari junior Niccolò Maccagnani and McLaren junior Christian Costoya’s challenges.
Despite Costoya passing Cotty in the closing stages, she remained close to the cars ahead as she finished only 0.057 seconds behind tenth.
As race two’s starting grid was determined by reversing race one’s top 12 finishers, Cotty lined up on the front row alongside Maccagnani on the Sunday morning.
In a race headlined by chaos, Cotty kept her cool to stay close to Maccagnani and take a superb first podium of her career as the highest-placed R-ace GP car.
For the third and final race of the weekend, Cotty qualified 11th, but with grid penalties for other drivers being applied, she lined up ninth on the grid. In another chaos-filled race, she climbed through the field and once again showed impressive pace to finish fifth, just over a second from the podium.
With her strong performances, Cotty now sits fourth in the overall standings on 28 points.
Reflecting on the weekend Cotty said: “I had a great build-up to the weekend, firstly getting back into driving the car after Christmas holidays and then working with my new coach, former F2 driver, Calan Williams.
"R-ace GP put out a top car for all of us this weekend and it really showed in the results with the team now leading the standings.
“I was very pleased to get my first podium in F4 in a super competitive field of 37 other drivers including multiple F1 juniors ending the weekend P4 overall in the championship.
"It’s been a lot of hard work to get this podium and I’ll be pushing even harder to keep up the momentum for the rest of the series. Finishing strongly in race three in P5 gives me a lot of confidence to keep going. I’m looking forward to next week and getting back on the Yas Marina Corkscrew layout for another challenge.”
You can follow Emily on Instagram or Facebook – search for @emilycotty42