Hugh Barter performed admirably at Spa in the Spanish F4 Championship driving to a trio of second places battling his team mate Nikola Tsolov.

The Australian dueled with Tsolov for the lead in all three races slipstreaming up the hill towards Les Combes as dirty air played a significant role in the outcome.

Barter said post-race to InsideF2 that he found it more difficult to overtake at Spa-Francorchamps than he anticipated coming into the weekend: “It was definitely harder to pass at Spa than I thought it would be. 

“The amount of dirty air you get in sector 2 was pretty bad so by the time you caught up into the Bus Stop and then had a little bit of tow down the main straight before Turn 1. 

“And then get the tow to Eau Rouge you’re only just starting to come back or start to gain the time back that you lost from sector 2. 

“So I’d say it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be  but compared to other tracks in the season I’d say this was definitely easier.”

The 16-year-old found his encounters with his Campos team mate to be quite simple with drafting on the Belgian circuit’s long straights the key factor to coming out on top at Spa: “So the battles with Nikola (Tsolov) were I’d say pretty simplistic, I’d get a draft and then I could pass and then he’d get a draft and he could pass back.”

Barter will return to Spa at the end of July in the French F4 championship, despite him not being able to score points the Australian is eagerly anticipating another trip to the longest circuit on the French F4 calendar.

He said: “I feel pretty confident that this weekend went really well so I expect the same thing to happen in the French (championship) but hopefully this time it’s one position higher. Obviously, I won’t score points but we’ve always known that, so I’ve just gone to do what I can.”

WHAT A WEEKEND @circuitspa ?

P2 in all three races + fastest lap in race 2 ?? @CamposRacing @F4Spain pic.twitter.com/AjPQOnCENe

— Hugh Barter (@HughBarter) July 10, 2022

Image: High Barter