Less than two years after his debut in any form of Motorsport, Matteo Ferrer stood on a championship rostrum for the first time when he took third place in round three of the 2013 BRDC Formula 4 Winter Series.

Making his Formula 4 debut at Snetterton, following on from his BARC Formula Renault season with MGR Motorsport, Matteo quickly got to grips with the different characteristics of the Ralph Firman designed Formula 4 chassis. Pre-race testing at Snetterton on the Thursday and Friday was very encouraging with some excellent lap times.

Unfortunately following incessant rain, Saturday's qualifying was held on a treacherously wet, slick track and in the low temperatures Matteo was caught out by still-cold tyres resulting in a couple of off track moments, collecting a prodigious amount of mud in one front wheel which resulted in a serious vibration for the rest of the session.

Despite this, Matteo qualified sixth, right behind team-mate and Formula 4 race winner Pietro Fittipaldi. This determined his starting position for race one on Saturday.

A storming first lap charge has been a trademark of Matteo's season, and on a still wet, slick track, he completed the first lap fifth, which soon became fourth, with Fittipaldi right on his tail. The two raced closely for a number of laps, passing and re-passing until Fittipaldi went for a narrowing gap and the two MGR cars touched putting both into a spin. Fittipaldi was able to rejoin almost immediately while Matteo lost a number of positions, but fought back to finish seventh.

With race two Saturday decided by individual 'fastest race laps', Matteo and Pietro again started alongside one another, for another wet race, and another strong start saw Matteo up to fourth by the third corner, but a momentary brake lock sent him off circuit and into retirement.

The F4 event format, saw another qualifying session Sunday morning to determine starting position for Sundays race one. Although not quite as wet as Saturday it was a great deal colder and Matteo's inexperience with the Yokohama tyre in the conditions and a misunderstanding on the time remaining in the session, saw him qualify seventh with Fittipaldi fifth.

Although it had stopped raining, the track was still very wet for the start of the first race.
Again Matteo made a storming start and was fifth into the first corner, then fourth halfway around the first lap when Saturday race winner Matt Graham dropped to the tail of the field after he tangled with his Saturday challenger Seth Fielding.  Matteo then hunted down third placed Fielding and made a decisive pass to take the position, which he then held to the flag to take his first career podium. It was an impressive performance where Matteo never put a foot wrong.

By the start of the final race of the weekend, the track was mostly dry so that the whole field started on slicks.  Matteo's fastest lap from the morning race meant he started fourth. Another good start saw him crowding the leaders when he was caught out on the entry to turn three, ran wide over the exit kerb and spun to the infield, bringing his weekend to a close. Unfortunately the trip over the kerb resulted in a very sore back for Matteo.

Overall it was an encouraging first event  in Formula 4, but with a disappointing end to the weekend. 

Ends. 

 Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography